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In  Memoriam 

DR.JOHNJ.DORAN 


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LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CAUFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

PRESENTED  BY 
DONALD  FITCH 


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BROTHER  AZARIAS'  ESSAYS. 

ESSAYS  EDUCATIONAL. 

With  Preface  by  His  Eminencb,  Cardinal  Gibbons. 

"Cloistral  Schools." 

•  The  Palatine  School." 

"  Mediaval  University  Life." 

"University  Colleges,  Their  Origin  and  Methods." 

"  The  Primary  School  in  the  Middle  Ages." 

"  The  Simultaneous  Method  in  Teaching." 

"  Beginnings  of  the  Normal  School." 

"  M.  Gabriel  Compayr^as  an  Historian  of  Pedagogy.' 

ESSAYS  PHILOSOPHICAL. 

With  Preface  by  the  Rx.  REV.  John  J.  Kbanb. 

"Aristotle  and  the  Christian  Church." 

"The  Nature  and  Synthetic  Principle  of  Philosophy. 

"  Symbolism  of  the  Cosmos." 

"  Psychological  Aspects  of  Education." 

"Ethical  Aspects  of  the  Papal  Encyclical  on  Labor." 

ESSAYS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

With  Preface  by  the  Rev.  Brothbr  JOSTIN. 

"Literature,  Its  Nature  and  Influence." 

"The  Sonnets  and  Plays  of  Shakespeare." 

"Culture  of  the  Spiritual  Sense." 

"Religion  in  Education." 

"Our  Catholic  School  System." 

"  Our  Colleges." 

"  Church  and  State."  ' 

Cloth,  Price  Per  Volume,  $1,00. 


W  V\)s>\i^s5r\v)^^^  ^^^^ 


VSJK      \  \V>*  TSip**^ 


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ESSAYS 


MISCELLANEOUS 


BY 

BROTHER  AZARIAS 


Of  tb*  Brothers  of  the  Christiu  Scbools 


WrTH   PREFACE  BY 

Brother  Justin 


P.  J.  KENEDY  &  SONS 


VrXW  XOKK  AMS  PHXI.Ar>K£J>BaA 


%013 


Santa  Barbara,  California 


Copyright,  1896, 

BY 

D.  H.  McBRIDK  &  CO. 


^  JoJi 


PREFACE 


^^O  write  the  preface  to  a  work  of  miscellaneous 
^"^  character,  to  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  its 
contents,  it  is  necessary  not  only  to  know  the 
author  intimately,  but  to  be  also  familiar  with  his 
standpoint  of  action. 

Brother  Azarias  was  of  good,  pure,  Irish  reli- 
gious stock.  The  family  might  almost  be  said  to 
be  sacerdotal.  Love  for  the  altar  and  reverence 
for  the  convent  were  among  its  most  cherished 
heirlooms,  and  the  happy  effects  of  these  sacred 
traditions  were  not  without  their  influence  on  the 
character  of  the  children. 

Brother  Azarias  was  highly  gifted  intellectually. 
It  could  not  be  said  of  him  that  he  had  buried  his 
talent,  for  he  was  an  industrious  and  methodical 
student  up  to  the  day  of  his  happy  death. 

He  entered  the  Institute  of  the  Brothers  of  the 
Christian  Schools  about  the  age  of  fifteen.  He 
was  a  good,  pious,  earnest  novice,  and  as  the  first 
duty  of  the  novice  is  to  study  carefully  the  rules 
of  the  society  of  which  he  is  about  to  become  a 
member,  he  was  scrupulously  faithful  to  this  as  to 
the  other  duties  of  his  chosen  religious  calling. 
The  leading  rule,  "The  Brothers  shall  look  at  all 

(5> 


6  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

things  from  the  standpoint  of  faith,  and  through  a 
spirit  of  faith  they  shall  adore  the  orders  and  the 
will  of  God  in  all  things,"  took  root  in  his  young 
heart  and  became  the  guiding  principle  of  his  reli- 
gious life.  The  deep  religious  feeling  which  was 
inbred  in  the  child  grew  with  his  years  and  was 
intensified  by  his  meditations  and  developed  by 
his  religious  profession.  His  ideals  were  high,  his 
inspiration  was  from  above,  his  aim  was  God,  and 
his  ambition  the  good  of  his  fellowman.  These 
traits  the  attentive  reader  of  his  works  will  recog- 
nize with  greater  force  in  proportion  as  he  studies 
them  more  carefully. 

"  How,"  asked  an  eminent  prelate, "  does  Brother 
Azarias  come  by  his  varied  and  profound  knowl- 
edge?" 

Brother  Azarias  was  gifted  with  an  extraordinary 
memory,  a  critical  and  correct  taste  and  a  sound 
judgment.  He  was  a  careful  and  judicious  reader, 
and  as  he  read  he  kept  his  pencil  and  notebook  ever 
at  hand.  He  read  distinguished  foreign  authors  in 
their  own  languages,  and  was  thus  enabled  not  only 
to  appreciate  them  better,  but  to  assimilate  some 
of  their  excellencies.  When  he  met  with  a  passage 
that  appeared  to  him  beautiful  he  examined  it 
critically,  and  if  it  did  not  conform  to  his  ideals  he 
at  once  rejected  it.  Thus  throughout  his  literary 
career  he  labored  assiduously  and  therein  lay  the 
secret  of  his  wide  and  deep  knowledge. 

He  was  of  a  retiring  disposition  and  as  modest 
as  a  gentle  girl.  He  was  humble  and  even  diffident. 
He  never  published  an  article  that  had  not  been 


PREFACE.  7 

previously  submitted  to  well-recognized  ability  and 
high  authority.  The  reader  is  therefore  safe  in 
following  his  guidance. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  the  teacher  of  his  boyhood 
to  pay  this  simple  and  truthful  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  his  former  pupil. 

Brother  Justin. 

Manhattan  Collkok, 
August  s,  1896. 


CONTENTS 


PA«a 
Literature,  Its  Nature  and  Influence 13 

Religion  in  Education 53 

The  Sonnets  and  Plays  of  Shakespeare     ....    91 

Culture  of  the  Spiritual  Sense 113 

Our  Catholic  School  System 173 

What  is  the  Outlook  for  Our  Colleges?    .    .    .     195 

Church  and  State 837 

(») 


UlTERATdRE:    ITS  NATtiRE  ANB 
INFl2dENeE 


(11) 


LITERATURE:    ITS    NATURE    AND 
INFLUENCE. 

I. 

Bdneatlonal  Power  of  Literature. 

*HAT  is  literature?  Not  every  book  that  is 
written  may  be  called  literature.  An  arith- 
metic, a  text-book  in  geometry,  a  work  treating 
technically  of  the  sciences  is  not  to  be  considered 
literature.  Again,  the  newspaper,  varied  as  are  its 
daily  reports  and  wide  as  is  its  range  of  topics,  can- 
not be  set  down  as  literature.  What,  then,  con- 
stitutes literature?  Two  things:  first,  the  subject 
treated  of  must  be  such  as  appeals  to  our  common 
humanity ;  second,  the  subject  must  be  treated  in 
such  a  style  that  the  reading  of  it  gives  general 
pleasure. 

Each  of  these  elements  supplements  the  other. 
The  treatment  of  a  subject  dealing  with  human 
nature,  or  appealing  to  what  belongs  to  our  human 
feelings,  in  itself,  without  style,  without  special 
form  of  expression  corresponding  to  the  subject, 
corresponding  to  the  personality  treating  the  sub- 
ject; this  would  not  constitute  literature.  So,  also, 
mere  style,  no  matter  how  polished,  without  some- 
thing appealing  to  our  human  nature,  would  ex- 
clude  a   book   so   written    from   the   catalogue  of 

(13) 


14  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

literature.  When  we  take  up  a  play  of  Shakes- 
peare, we  read  therein  thoughts  that  are  profound, 
in  a  style  that  is  marvelous.  We  find  that  this 
great  author  "has  held  the  mirror  up  to  nature," 
and  every  aspiration  of  our  own  soul,  and  every 
pulse  of  our  own  heart  we  can  find  expressed  in  the 
marvelous  pages  of  this  great  poet. 

De  Quincy  very  beautifully  draws  a  distinction 
between  what  he  calls  the  literature  of  knowledge 
and  the  literature  of  power.  The  distinction  is  a 
good  one  and  we  may  admit  it  with  profit.  There 
are  certain  books  that  are  purely  technical  and  yet 
which  appeal  directly  to  the  intellect  and  have  an 
influence  upon  their  times,  and  these  books  we  may 
call  the  literature  of  knowledge.  Such  a  book  in 
the  theological  line  is  Butler's  "Analogy."  Such  a 
book  in  the  philosophical  line  is  Locke's  "  Essay 
on  the  Human  Understanding."  Such  a  book  in 
the  department  of  political  economy  is  Adam 
Smith's  "Wealth  of  Nations."  The  literature  of 
power  is  of  a  different  quality.  It  deals  more  with 
the  emotions  and  passions  of  human  nature;  it 
appeals  to  head  and  heart  alike ;  it  interprets  for  us 
our  deepest  and  most  subtle  thoughts  and  aspira- 
tions. It  may  move  us  to  tears  by  its  pathos,  it 
may  inspire  mirth  and  laughter  by  its  wit  or  humor, 
but  it  invariably  appeals  to  our  emotions  in  one 
form  or  other. 

Again,  the  literature  of  power,  by  revealing  to 
us  certain  secret  relations  between  ourselves  and 
the  material  world,  places  us  in  a  spirit  of  greater 
harmony  and  contentment  with  all  that  is  grand, 


LITERA  TURE.  16 

noble  and  beautiful  in  hill  and  dale  and  starry 
sky,  in  the  flowing  river,  or  the  heaving  ocean  to 
which  the  river  flows,  and  our  sense  of  taste  be- 
comes awakened  to  the  perception  of  the  beauty  of 
every  sight  and  every  sound  in  this  beautiful  world 
of  ours.  Again,  the  literature  of  power  stirs  our 
souls  to  their  very  depth  and  awakens  in  us  spir- 
itual life,  and  reveals  to  us  our  shortcomings  and 
our  foibles,  and  holds  up  to  us  for  admiration  and 
imitation  the  nobility  and  beauty  of  virtue,  and, 
that  we  may  loathe  it,  the  deformity  of  vice. 

From  this  we  may  perceive  what  a  great  educa- 
tional element  literature  becomes,  and  how  far- 
reaching  is  its  influence.  Indeed,  literature  has 
been  the  educator  of  the  most  cultured  nations. 
Greece  was  moulded  in  the  literature  of  Homer 
and  ^schylus  and  Sophocles.  It  is,  in  a  special 
sense,  a  literary  nation.  Again,  the  literature  of 
Greece  refined  Rome,  and  the  fragments  that  sur- 
vived of  the  literatures  of  both  Greece  and  Rome 
have  been  the  educational  influences  under  which 
the  barbarian  was  first  civilized,  and  by  which  all 
mediaeval  and  modern  culture  has  been  propagated. 
The  greatest  intellects  have  been  inspired  by  the 
literature  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and,  later  on,  by 
the  Christian  literatures  of  Christian  nations.  But 
in  the  history  of  civilization,  literature  has  been 
the  one  essential  element  made  use  of  in  raising  a 
people  from  barbarism  to  culture  and  refinement. 

By  means  of  literature  has  the  Church  estab- 
lished Christianity  and  spread  her  doctrines  broad- 
cast over  the  world.     By  means  of  literature,  by 


16  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

means  of  the  good  book,  and  the  powerful  sermon 
and  the  far-reaching  encyclical  of  the  Holy  Father, 
does  the  Church  continue  to  instruct  and  en- 
lighten peoples  and  nations.  Surely,  so  powerful 
an  element,  an  element  so  widespread  in  its  in- 
fluence, must  needs  be  worthy  of  our  most  careful 
attention,  and,  indeed,  it  were  hard  to  set  bounds 
to  the  action  of  a  good  or  a  bad  book  on  life  and 
character. 

Mr.  W.  T.  Stead,  recently  editor  of  the  "  Pall 
Mall  Gazette,"  London,  now  editor  of  "  The  Re- 
view of  Reviews,"  in  speaking  of  the  late  James 
Russell  Lowell,  tells  us  how,  in  his  eighteenth 
year,  the  reading  of  that  poet's  "  Extreme  Unc- 
tion" became  an  epoch  in  his  life  and  an  influenc- 
ing agency  for  good,  working  in  him  up  to  the 
present  hour.  Yet  that  poem  of  Lowell's  is  very 
short.  It  contains  only  eleven  stanzas.  It  tells 
the  story  of  a  man,  having  passed  his  four  score 
years,  dying  in  despair  because  his  life  had  been 
one  of  selfishness.  He  then  felt  that  God  had 
called  him  into  the  world  to  do  a  work,  and  that 
he  had  neglected  that  work ;  that  every  wrong  he 
had  witnessed  in  life  was  an  appeal  to  him,  was  the 
voice  of  God  speaking  to  him,  asking  him  to  add 
his  share  of  exertion  to  right  that  wrong,  and  he 
overlooked  the  wrong  and  lived  for  his  own  self- 
gratification,  and  so  he  dies  in  despair,  and  appears 
before  his  Maker  empty  handed,  and  Stead,  on 
reading  that  poem,  resolved  that  when  his  hour 
should  come  to  render  an  account  of  the  life  that 
had  been  given  him,  of  the  opportunities  to  do 


LITER  A  TURE.  17 

good  that  had  been  placed  at  his  disposal,  he 
would  not  be  found  wanting. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  reading  of  a  short  poem  can 
influence  a  whole  life.  Again,  it  is  a  matter  of  his- 
tory how  the  reading  of  a  single  passage  in  the 
New  Testament  changed  the  whole  life  of  St.  Au- 
gustine, and  you  may  remember  that  St.  Ignatius 
was  called  by  God  to  do  a  great  work  through  the 
reading  of  the  "  Lives  of  the  Saints."  Again,  those 
of  you  who  may  have  read  George  Eliot's  beautiful 
novel  of  "  The  Mill  on  the  Floss,"  will  remember 
how  the  reading  of  a  few  passages  in  the  "  Imita- 
tion of  Christ "  led  the  heroine,  Maggie  Tulliver, 
to  perceive  new  vistas  of  spiritual  life  that  she  had 
never  dreamed  of  before,  and  to  resolve  to  realize  in 
hers  something  of  that  spiritual  life  which  was  all 
so  new  and  wonderful  to  her ;  and,  indeed,  if  you 
yourselves  read  thoughtfully  the  chapter  in  "  The 
Mill  on  the  Floss,"  speaking  of  the  "  Imitation" — 
that  wonderful  book,  that  low  sweet  voice  of  hu- 
manity, coming  down  to  us  from  the  Middle  Ages 
laden  with  so  much  truth  and  so  much  spiritual 
beauty — you  will  always  take  up  that  masterpiece 
of  Thomas  Si  Kempis  with  a  greater  pleasure  and 
read  it  with  more  zest  than  before  you  had  read 
this  beautiful  tribute  that  George  Eliot  pays  to  it. 

And  so,  a  young  man  who  lets  sink  into  his 
heart  all  the  noble  grandeur  of  Wordsworth's  "Ode 
to  Duty"  will  find  himself  all  the  better  for  it  and 
will  almost  unconsciously  seek  to  raise  himself  up 
to  the  high  standard  of  that  noble  ode.  Such  then, 
young  men,  is  the  nature  of  the  subject  you  are 

E.  M.— a 


18  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

about  to  take  up.  You  cannot  give  it  too  earnest 
attention.  You  cannot  be  too  careful  in  your 
reading.  A  single  book,  sometimes  a  single  pas- 
sage in  a  book,  is  sufficient  to  mould  a  character. 
See  to  it,  then,  that  the  book  to  which  you  attach 
yourselves  is  such  as  will  be  helpful  to  build  up 
your  character,  to  strengthen  your  resolves  for 
good,  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  be  to  you  a  source 
of  culture  and  refinement.  The  literature  so 
studied,  the  book  so  read,  is  bound  to  fulfil  its 
primary  work  as  an  educational  influence. 


II. 


Catholic  Influence  In  Literature. 

The  Church  from  the  beginning  has  been  the 
preserver  and  promoter  of  literature,  and  St.  Basil, 
in  his  address  to  the  young  men  under  his  care, 
seems  to  me  to  have  best  interpreted  the  attitude 
of  the  Church  toward  profane  learning.  This  great 
saint  and  eminent  educator,  who  possessed  all  the 
learning  that  Athens  could  give  in  his  day,  exhorts 
his  students  to  read  the  pagan  poets,  historians, 
orators,  all  those  authors  who  can  aid  the  culture 
of  the  soul  and  prepare  it  for  the  battle  of  life. 
The  wisdom  thus  culled  with  discrimination  he 
likens  to  the  flower  and  leaf  upon  the  tree,  while 
he  regards  truth,  pure  and  simple,  as  the  fruit. 
Even  as  the  bee  draws  honey  from  the  flower  while 
all  others  are  content  with  admiring  its  beauty  and 
sharing  its  perfume,  so  does  the  wise  student  know 


LITER  A  TURE.  19 

how  to  draw  lessons  for  right-doing  from  the  poets, 
historians,  and  orators  that  he  reads.  St.  Basil  has 
an  eye  only  for  the  good  and  the  true  in  these 
authors.  Whatever  is  false  or  vicious,  or  panders 
to  passion,  he  knows  how  to  overlook.  He  en- 
forces these  precepts  with  many  beautiful  illustra- 
tions, and  ends  his  discourse  by  showing  that  what 
is  best  in  the  great  philosophers  and  poets  is  in 
accord  with  the  teachings  of  the  gospel. 

This  educational  tradition  continued  to  be 
handed  down  the  ages,  and  so  we  find  that  Boethius 
(475-525)  translates  Euclid  and  some  of  the  treat- 
ises of  Aristotle,  for  the  youths  of  Rome,  at  the 
request  of  his  friend  Cassiodorus  (470-570) ;  and 
Cassiodorus  himself,  he  who  had  been  prime  minis- 
ter in  the  Roman  Court,  great  statesman  and 
scholar  that  he  was,  at  the  age  of  ninety  sits  down 
to  write  a  grammar  for  the  boys  under  his  charge 
in  the  monastery  of  Viviers.  Isidore  of  Seville 
(570-636),  whom  the  Council  of  Toledo  pronounced 
"the  glory  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  most 
learned  man  of  his  age,"  wrote  text-books  for  his 
pupils  on  every  subject,  in  letters,  and  science,  and 
art,  and  the  trades,  from  the  book  of  A  B  C's  to  a 
tract  on  the  best  manner  of  shoeing  a  horse.  Bede 
(673-735)  continues  the  literary  tradition,  and  we 
find  him  also  writing  text-books  for  his  boys,  that 
they  might  learn  the  best  knowledge  in  the  best 
manner  possible.  The  educational  traditions  of 
Wearmouth  and  Yarrow  were  continued  by  Egbert, 
Bishop  of  York,  who  handed  them  down  to  Alcuin. 
Under    the    patronage    of    Charlemagne,    Alcuin, 


20  £:ssArs  miscellaneous. 

aided  by  Clement  and  other  Irish  monks,  spreads 
the  light  throughout  France.  The  educational  tra- 
dition is  taken  up  by  the  various  schools  estab- 
lished wherever  Christianity  had  a  foothold. 

It  is  customary  to  speak  of  those  early  Chris- 
tian ages  as  dark  ages,  but  we  would  make  a  great 
mistake  if  we  were  to  believe  that  education  was 
not  then  general  and  widespread.  In  every  town 
and  hamlet  where  there  was  a  self-supporting 
church  there  was  a  primary  or  rural  school.  In 
every  episcopal  palace  there  was  a  seminary  in 
which  young  men  were  trained  for  the  priesthood. 
Every  monastery  had  its  school  for  externs  in 
which  the  children  of  the  neighborhood  were  edu- 
cated, and  its  school  for  interns  in  which  the 
youths  intending  to  become  religious  were  prop- 
erly trained.  And  we  must  not  forget  to  make 
mention  of  the  palace  schools  in  which  the  sons  of 
the  nobility  were  brought  together  and  educated 
according  to  their  station  in  life.  Finally,  as  the 
tide  of  education  swelled  more  and  more,  all  these 
schools  were  merged  into  the  universities  of  Eu- 
rope. These  universities  were  so  regulated  that 
the  poorest  youth  could  receive  in  them  his  educa- 
tion ;  and  that  they  were  well  patronized  is  evi- 
denced from  the  numbers  attending  them  as 
recorded  by  historians.  Thus,  we  are  told  that  at 
one  time  in  the  University  of  Paris,  there  were  not 
less  than  thirty  thousand  students.  Oxford  fre- 
quently numbered  twenty  thousand. 

Now,  what  is  the  outcome  of  all  this  educa- 
tional tradition  ?    What  are  the  permanent  forces 


LITER  A  TURK.  21 

in  culture  and  civilization  to  which  it  gave  rise? 
In  philosophy  and  theology  we  have  the  g^eat 
works  of  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin.  No  more  pro- 
found genius  ever  wrote,  no  philosopher  ever  had 
as  firm  a  grasp  of  every  subject  that  he  touched 
upon  or  treated  it  more  luminously  than  did  St. 
Thomas  in  his  philosophical  and  theological  treat- 
ises. In  poetry,  as  the  outcome  of  Catholic  educa- 
tion, we  have  the  "  Divine  Comedy  "  of  Dante.  Thfs 
is  the  sublimest  poem  that  human  genius  ever  con- 
ceived and  executed.  I  notice  that  your  Chateau- 
briand qualifies  the  genius  of  Dante  with  many 
limitations.  The  fact  is,  Chateaubriand  never  ap- 
preciated Dante  at  his  true  worth.  He  was  inca- 
pable of  measuring  the  height  and  breadth  and  depth 
of  that  sublime  genius.  Another  outcome  of  this 
Catholic  education  and  Catholic  mediaeval  life,  is 
Shakespeare.  Carlyle  says  expressly  that  Shakes- 
peare is  the  flower  of  Catholicism.  He  may  or  he 
may  not  have  been  himself  a  Catholic.  The  proba- 
bility is  that  he  was  one,  but  the  whole  spirit  of  his 
greatest  plays  is  thoroughly  Catholic.  None  but  a 
Catholic  can  appreciate  at  its  full  value  the  sublime 
tragedy  of  "  Hamlet."  In  painting,  the  Catholic 
spirit  has  expressed  itself  through  so  many  schools 
and  the  masterpieces  of  so  many  geniuses  from  Fra 
Angelico  to  Murillo  and  Raphael,  that  it  were  im- 
possible within  the  time  at  our  disposal,  to  name 
the  tenth  part  of  these  old  masters.  In  architec- 
ture, we  have,  as  the  sublimest  expression  of  these 
Catholic  days,  the  great  Gothic  cathedrals  of 
Europe. 


22  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

And  here  I  must  express  some  surprise  at  re- 
marks made  by  Professor  Hamlin.  He  is  reported 
to  have  said:  "The  Middle  Ages,  unlike  the  early 
period  of  Justinian,  have  left  us  no  single  monu- 
ment in  undisputed  preeminence  in  perfection  and 
glory."  I  cannot  imagine  of  what  the  professor 
must  have  been  thinking  when  he  uttered  these 
words.  Every  Gothic  cathedral  is  in  itself  the 
stone  embodiment  of  mediaeval  life.  It  contains 
the  poetry,  the  thought,  the  satire  and  humor,  the 
aspiration  of  mediaeval  Christendom,  in  language 
as  clear  cut  and  as  expressive  as  Dante's  own  im- 
mortal lines.  Again,  I  would  call  your  attention 
to  another  remark  of  the  professor.  He  is  speak- 
ing of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  and  he  tells  us  that  that 
great  monument  of  religion  was  built  at  the  time 
when  "the  foot  of  the  pope  was  losing  its  power  to 
tread  upon  the  neck  of  emperors."  True  it  is,  that 
during  the  Middle  Ages  the  pope  had  great  power 
and  influence  among  the  nations.  He  was,  in  a 
measure,  the  arbiter  of  nations.  The  Holy  See 
was  the  tribunal  before  which  kings  and  emperors 
laid  their  disputes  to  be  adjudicated,  and  whenever 
a  pope  placed  his  foot  upon  the  neck  of  an  em- 
peror, it  was  in  the  cause  of  the  weak  against  the 
strong,  in  the  cause  of  right  against  might,  in  the 
cause  of  religion  against  atheism  and  infidelity. 
When  the  pope  quarreled  with  Philip  Augustus  of 
France,  it  was  in  order  to  protect  the  sanctity  of 
the  marriage  tie,  to  defend  a  helpless  and  injured 
wife  against  the  brutality  of  a  king  who  was  the 
slave  of  a  vile  passion.     When  the  pope  quarreled 


LITER  A  TURE.  23 

with  the  German  emperors  on  the  question  of  in- 
vestitures, it  was  in  order  to  protect  the  Church 
against  simony,  to  secure  her  worthy  bishops,  as 
opposed  to  the  mere  tools  and  creatures  that  these 
emperors  would  force  into  her  sanctuary. 


III. 


The  Literature  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

What  are  the  sources  whence  our  modern  liter- 
ature derives  its  life  and  sustenance?  Looking 
through  the  Middle  Ages  we  may  discern  three 
distinct  literary  streams.  First,  there  is  the  stream 
of  spiritual  life  and  spiritual  thought.  The  Middle 
Ages  were,  preeminently,  "Ages  of  Faith."  They 
were  not  ages  in  which  perfection  was  attained  by 
society  at  large.  They  were  ages  deficient  in  many 
of  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  life  that  we 
enjoy  to-day.  They  were  ages  in  which  war  was 
carried  on  with  barbaric  cruelty,  and  men  became 
no  less  distinguished  for  their  vices  than  others  be- 
came distinguished  for  their  virtues.  These  were 
ages  in  which  great  holiness  frequently  was  found 
side  by  side  with  enormous  crime,  and  sometimes 
the  very  men  who  had  sinned  became  repentant 
and  humble  and  devout  children  of  the  Church  in 
later  years.  Religion  presided  over  the  general 
routine  of  life.  People  prayed  much.  It  was  a 
common  practice  for  laymen  busily  engaged  in  the 
affairs  of  life  to  devote  a  certain  number  of  hours 
daily  to  the  recitation  of  the  Divine  Office.     Feast 


24  £SSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

days  were  numerous  and  were  observed  with  all 
the  pomp  of  religious  ceremonial.  Men  lived,  so  to 
speak,  in  intimate  communion  with  the  world  be- 
yond the  grave.  Heaven  and  the  heavenly  hosts, 
hell  and  purgatory,  were  to  the  people  of  those 
days  greater  realities  than  the  very  earth  they  trod 
upon.  And  so  we  find  many  sources  whence  they 
drew  spiritual  sustenance.  Sermons  were  preached 
and  listened  to  with  awe  and  reverence  and  an 
attention  that  only  the  greatest  orators  can  com- 
mand to-day.  In  every  language  we  find  hymns  in 
honor  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  of  the  saints. 
These  hymns  abounded  in  England  as  well  as  in 
other  countries  of  Europe,  and  England,  on  account 
of  her  great  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  was 
known  in  Catholic  days  as  "Our  Lady's  Dowry." 
One  of  those  hymns  that  were  sung  by  the  people 
speaks  the  same  language  that  the  hymns  of  Father 
Faber  or  of  any  of  our  modern  poets  speak  upon 
the  same  subject: 

"Blessed  be  thou,  Lady, 
Full  of  Heaven's  bliss, 
Sweet  flower  of  Paradise, 
Mother  of  milternesse. 

"  Blessed  be  thou.  Lady, 
So  fair  and  so  bright. 
All  my  hope  is  upon  thee 
By  day  and  by  night." 

So  sang  one  of  the  Catholic  bards  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  HI.  Again,  there  were  spiritual  books  in 
those  days,  teaching  the  practices  and  principles  of 


LITER  A  TURE.  26 

ascetic  life.  The  flower  of  all  these  is  the  one  to 
which  I  have  already  alluded,  the  "  Imitation  of 
Christ,"  written  by  Thomas  k  Kempis  in  the  four- 
teenth century. 

But  there  were  other  means  of  instructing  the 
people  besides  books.  The  paintings,  the  pictured 
windows,  the  sculptured  statues,  the  bronze  doors, 
the  carvings  around  the  pulpit,  were  all  so  many 
means  of  conveying  some  spiritual  truth  or  other, 
of  making  known  some  scene  or  event  in  the  life  of 
a  patron  saint.  Again,  spiritual  lessons  were  con- 
veyed by  means  of  the  miracle  plays  and  morali- 
ties which  were  enacted  on  festivals  with  great 
pomp  and  ceremony.  Christmas  had  its  miracle 
plays  in  which  the  events  surrounding  the  birth  of 
our  Lord  were  beautifully  represented.  Easter  had 
its  miracle  plays  in  which  the  resurrection  of  our 
Lord  was  enacted.  Corpus  Christi  had  its  miracle 
plays  in  which  the  beautiful  scenes  surrounding  the 
institution  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  were  reproduced. 
The  great  patron  saints  were  celebrated  in  these 
miracle  plays,  but,  above  all,  the  passion  of  our 
Lord  was  reverently  and  devoutly  played  from  the 
Church  door  and  the  Church  porch  before  immense 
audiences.  These  miracle  plays  have  now  van- 
ished, the  only  surviving  one  being  the  passion 
play  at  Oberammergau. 

You  will  find  in  the  literatures  dealing  with  the 
subject  a  great  deal  said  against  these  miracle 
plays.  They  are  represented  as  rude,  vulgar  and 
irreverent.  This  is  all  a  mistake.  No  critic  ever 
attended  the  passion  play  at  Oberammergau  that 


26  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

did  not  return  from  there  loud  in  his  admiration  of 
everything  connected  with  that  sublime  drama. 
And  if  this  is  true  of  the  sole  surviving  specimen 
that  remains  to  us,  it  was  no  less  true  of  the  gen- 
eral run  of  the  plays  that  were  enacted  in  those 
mediaeval  days.  They  were  so  many  object  lessons 
for  the  people,  teaching  them  more  profoundly 
than  any  book  could  do  it  the  depth  and  meaning 
of  the  great  events  recorded  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testament. 

Spiritual  food  sometimes  took  the  shape  of 
allegory,  and  so  we  have  long  allegorical  poems 
dealing  with  a  variety  of  spiritual  subjects.  In 
some,  as  in  the  "  Vision  of  the  Piers  Plowman," 
written  by  William  Langland,  vice  is  attacked,  and 
Church  abuses  are  mentioned  to  be  scathingly  de- 
nounced. Of  a  like  order  was  the  "  Fable  of 
Reynard  the  Fox."  Another  allegorical  poem  that 
has  come  down  to  us  is  "  The  Flower  and  the 
Leaf,"  a  poem,  until  quite  recently,  attributed  to 
Chaucer.  Herein  the  flower  is  made  to  represent 
transitory  pleasure,  and  the  leaf  the  enduring 
goods  of  virtue.  A  favorite  form  of  allegory  in 
mediaeval  days  was  that  representing  the  soul  of 
man  going  on  a  pilgrimage,  in  which  his  vices  were 
represented  as  so  many  giants,  and  his  virtues  as  so 
many  good  angels  or  chivalrous  knights,  and  his 
dispositions  as  the  hills  and  the  valleys  through 
which  he  would  pass. 

Such  an  allegory  is  the  "Pilgrimage  of  Man- 
hood "  by  the  Cistercian  monk,  Guillaume  de  Guill- 
ville.      The    fortune    of    this    allegory    is    worth 


LITERATURE.  27 

recording.  It  was  translated  into  English  verse  by 
John  Lydgate,  a  learned  and  popular  Benedictine 
monk.  There  are  to-day  in  the  British  Museum 
several  manuscript  copies  of  Lydgate's  version,  but 
the  book  has  never  been  published.  Later,  a  prose 
translation  of  the  poem  was  made  and  widely  cir- 
culated thoughout  England.  That  version  has 
been  recently  published  by  the  '*  Roxburgh  Club." 
Abridgments  of  this  prose  translation  were  made 
and  widely  circulated ;  and  one  of  them  fell  into 
the  hands  of  an  enthusiastic  tinker  who  could 
barely  read  and  write,  and  this  tinker  read  the 
book  over  and  over  until  its  whole  meaning  en- 
tered his  soul  and  fired  his  imagination,  and  forth- 
with he  undertook  to  write  a  similar  book  in  a 
similar  strain  without  the  learning  of  the  original, 
but  in  his  own  homespun  English,  and  the  out- 
come of  that  effort  is  John  Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's 
Progress." 

Another  source  of  spiritual  food  was  the  "  Lives 
of  the  Saints."  There  were  versions  of  these  in 
prose  and  versions  in  verse.  The  most  celebrated 
collection  in  verse  is  that  known  as  the  "  Legenda 
Aurea,"  or  "  Golden  Legends,"  of  James  de  Vora- 
gine.  Archbishop  of  Genoa,  which  appeared  about 
the  year  1290.  From  this  collection  was  it  that 
Chaucer  drew  the  materials  for  his  "  Second  Nun's 
Tale,"  which  is  the  story  of  St.  Cecelia. 

The  second  source  of  intellectual  culture  is 
scholastic  philosophy  and  scholastic  theology. 
The  philosophy  and  theology  of  those  days  were 
not  dead  letters.     They  were  living,  active  agencies. 


28  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Disputation  was  the  order  of  the  day.  Men  de- 
lighted  in  measuring  wit  and  learning  with  one 
another.  Their  intellectual  combats  lasted  days  at 
a  time.  Their  sole  measure  of  intellectual  prowess 
consisted  in  their  ability  to  carry  on  a  discussion. 
Even  St.  Thomas,  because  he  was  silent  and  cared 
little  for  these  disputations,  was  looked  upon  by 
his  companions  with  contempt  and  was  known  as 
the  "  Dumb  Ox  of  Sicily."  Students  were  not 
asked  to  write  compositions  in  those  days ;  every- 
thing was  carried  on  orally. 

Here  you  may  ask  me  what  was  the  character 
of  the  studies  carried  on  in  the  schools  and  univer- 
sities of  the  Middle  Ages.  These  studies  were 
known  as  the  seven  liberal  arts  and  were  sub- 
divided into  two  parts,  the  trivium  and  the  quad- 
rivium.  The  trivium  consisted  of  grammar,  which 
included  literature,  rhetoric  and  logic.  The  quad- 
rivium  consisted  of  arithmetic,  geometry,  music, 
and  astronomy. 

The  third  source  of  intellectual  food  supplied  in 
those  days  consisted  of  the  secular  literature  deal- 
ing with  chivalry  and  knight  errantry.  These 
generally  took  the  form  of  metrical  romances.  The 
length  of  these  poems  was  something  to  astonish 
us  at  present.  Take,  for  exatnple,  the  "  Romance  of 
the  Rose,"  which  Chaucer  translated  into  English. 
We  find  that  it  consisted  of  over  twenty-two  thou- 
sand lines.  These  romances  were  grouped  under 
three  heads. 

There  was  the  Carlovinian  cycle,  of  which 
Charles    the    Great    was   the    central   figure.     In 


LITER  A  TURB.  20 

France,  that  cycle  blossomed  into  the  beautiful 
"  Chanson  de  Roland."  In  Italy  it  blossomed  out 
into  the  magnificent  poem  of  Ariosto,  known  as  the 
"  Orlando  Furioso."  Then  there  was  the  Alexan- 
drian cycle  of  romances  in  which  Alexander  the 
Great  figured  as  the  center  of  a  large  group  of 
heroic  deeds.  Finally,  there  is  the  Arthurian  cycle, 
in  which  all  the  characters  revolved  around  the 
figure  of  King  Arthur  and  his  Round  Table.  The 
Arthurian  cycle  was  afterward  made  to  cluster 
round  the  "  Legend  of  the  Holy  Grail,"  and  it  then 
became  a  spiritual  allegory,  Spenser  attempted  to 
write  a  Protestant  version  of  this  beautiful  Catholic 
poem  in  his  "  Fairie  Queene."  Tennyson  in  his 
"  Idylls  of  the  King"  has  given  us  a  more  modern 
version,  in  which  he  had  the  good  sense  to  retain 
the  Catholic  conception  of  the  "Holy  Grail." 
Matthew  Arnold,  Swinburne,  and  our  own  James 
Russell  Lowell,  drew  inspiration  from  this  inex- 
haustible mine  of  poesy. 

Such  are  the  chief  sources  from  which  all  mod- 
ern literature  is  drawn.  Such  is  the  soil  in  which 
it  is  rooted.  I  have  given  you  but  the  merest  out- 
line of  that  literature  and  I  have  been  unable  to 
initiate  you  into  an  appreciation  of  the  vast  treas- 
ures of  beautiful  thought  and  sentiment  that 
abound  in  that  literature.  True,  it  is  the  literature 
of  a  past  age ;  it  is  a  literature  that  suited  another 
people  and  another  order  of  existence ;  it  is  a  liter- 
ature that  would  not  find  a  place  in  our  mode  of 
life  at  the  present  day.  Our  thoughts  run  in  other 
grooves,  but  still,  in  its  highest  and  best  forms,  it 


80  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

is  well  worthy  one's  study,  and  can  be  the  source 
of  many  a  fruitful  thought  when  read  with  proper 
care  and  attention.  A  literature  that  can  inspire  a 
Dante,  a  Milton,  a  Shakespeare,  to  which  we  can 
trace  whatever  is  best  in  Chaucer  and  Spenser,  in 
Tasso  and  Ariosto,  in  the  great  authors  of  every 
European  country ;  such  a  literature  is  not  to  be 
despised.  And  yet,  when  we  take  up  Taine's  work 
on  English  literature  and  note  the  flippancy  with 
which  he  treats  everything  connected  with  the 
Middle  Ages,  note  how  he  has  not  a  kind  word  for 
any  author  because  he  happens  to  belong  to  these 
,  Catholic  ages,  we  must  conclude  that  his  preju- 
dices have  clouded  his  intellect  and  influenced  his 
critical  judgment,  and  made  his  book  completely 
worthless  as  a  guide  to  literature. 


IV. 


School  Life  In  tbe  Middle  Ages. 

The  basis  of  all  school  life  in  the  Middle  Ages 
was  monastic  discipline,  for  the  schools  began  un- 
der the  shadow  of  the  Church  or  the  shadow  of  the 
monastery,  and  so  we  find  a  certain  uniformity  as 
regards  mode  of  living  and  as  regards  study  run- 
ning through  all  the  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  exhortation  that  St.  Ephraim  of  Edessa  gives 
to  his  students  in  the  fourth  century  is  one  that 
has  been  in  other  words  repeated  time  and  again 
throughout  the  Christian  schools  of  the  East  and 
the  West.     In  a  beautiful  poem  on  science  written 


LITER  A  TURE.  81 

in  the  classic  style  that  he  knew  so  well  how  to 
control  in  his  own  Syriac  tongue,  he  says : 

"  Imbue  thyself,  O  man,  with  activity  of  mind, 
great  treasure  of  wisdom,  and  renounce  idleness, 
the  source  of  perdition.  Apply  thyself  to  books 
in  order  to  learn  wisdom  therein,  and  take  not 
complaisance  in  thy  stomach  lest  thou  soon  lose 
that  which  thou  hast  acquired.  Possess  gold  with 
measure  and  science  without  measure,  so  that, 
should  tribulation  overtake  thee,  thou  mayest  find 
comfort  in  joy.  Science  is  a  second  light  and  has 
far-seeing  eyes ;  cherish  it,  child,  that  it  may  illu- 
mine thee,  and  that  those  who  listen  to  thee  may 
praise  it.  Science  prepares  a  crown  which  it  places 
on  the  heads  of  its  friends.  From  the  lowest  rank, 
it  raises  them  to  the  highest  honors  and  makes 
them  sit  on  the  throne  of  the  king.  Let  books  be 
thy  table  from  which  thou  wilt  be  filled  and  re- 
freshed; let  them  be  thy  bed  to  procure  thee  a 
tranquil  sleep." 

Passing  from  the  fourth  to  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury we  come  upon  Robert  of  Sorbon,  the  founder 
of  that  celebrated  school  of  theology  in  Paris 
known  as  the  "  Sorbonne."  He  was  for  many  years 
the  confessor  of  the  great  St.  Louis,  king  of  France, 
learned,  pious,  anxious  for  the  spread  of  knowledge 
in  his  day.  In  an  old  manuscript  in  the  "  National 
Library  of  Paris,"  the  following  advice  of  his  to  a 
scholar  has  been  unearthed  : 

*'  The  scholar,"  he  says,  "  who  would  profit  by 
his  studies,  should  observe  the  following  six  essen- 
tial rules:  First,  to  devote  a  certain  hour  to  de- 
termined reading.  Second,  to  fix  his  attention  on 
what  he  has  just  read,  and  not  to  pass  it  over 
lightly.      '  There  is,'   says   St.    Bernard,   '  between 


32  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

reading  and  study,  the  same  difference  that  exists 
between  a  host  and  a  friend,  a  greeting  exchanged 
on  the  streets,  and  an  unalterable  affection.' 
Third,  to  extract  daily  from  his  reading  some 
thought,  some  grain  of  truth,  and  to  engrave  it  on 
his  memory  with  special  care.  Fourth,  to  write  out 
an  epitome  of  what  one  has  read,  for  the  words  not 
confined  to  writing  fly  like  dust  before  the  wind. 
Fifth,  to  confer  with  one's  companions  in  disputa- 
tion, or,  rather,  in  familiar  entertainment.  This 
exercise  is  even  more  advantageous  than  reading, 
because  it  has  for  a  result  to  clear  up  all  doubts,  all 
obscurities  that  reading  may  have  left  upon  the 
mind.  Sixth,  to  pray.  That  is  indeed  one  of  the 
best  means  to  learn.  St.  Bernard  teaches  that  read- 
ing should  excite  the  affections  of  the  soul,  and 
that  we  should  profit  by  it  to  raise  our  hearts  to 
God  without  interrupting  study." 

Again,  this  learned  doctor  cautions  young  men 
against  wasting  their  time  upon  trifles.     He  says : 

"  Certain  scholars  act  like  fools.  They  put 
forth  great  subtlety  in  trifles  and  prove  themselves 
void  of  intelligence  in  important  things.  In  order 
to  give  the  semblance  of  not  having  lost  their  time 
they  form  thick  volumes  of  parchment  filled  with 
blank  intervals  in  the  interior,  and  cover  them  ele- 
gantly in  red  skin.  Then  they  return  to  the 
paternal  home  with  a  sack  full  of  a  science  that  can 
be  stolen  by  robbers,  eaten  by  rats  or  worms,  de- 
stroyed by  fire  or  water." 

In  other  words,  Robert  of  Sorbon  would  have 
the  student  stow  whatever  he  learns  in  his  memory 
primarily,  as  a  more  safe  place  than  in  his  note- 
book. 

In  the  same  century  we  come  across  another 
learned  teacher  who  has  endeared  himself  to  pos- 


LITER  A  TURB.  33 

terity  by  many  titles.  Friar  Buonvicina  da  Ripa  is 
one  of  the  most  honored  names  in  the  city  of 
Milan.  He  wrote  a  chronicle  of  the  city  which  has 
been  lost  with  the  exception  of  a  fragment  con- 
taining its  population  arrayed  according  to  trades 
and  professions.  He  is  also  remembered  as  having 
been  the  first  to  cause  the  "  Angelus  Bell  "  to  be 
rung  in  the  city  and  surrounding  country  of  Milan, 
and  this  fact  is  especially  noted  on  the  slab  record- 
ing his  death,  but  he  was  eminent  in  a  special  man- 
ner as  a  great  educator. 

There  is  extant  from  his  pen  a  poem  upon 
school  life.  It  is  called  "Vita  Scholastica."  It, 
like  the  counsels  of  Robert  of  Sorbon,  is  devoted  to 
good  advice  to  the  student  of  that  day.  It  lays 
down  all  the  rules  and  all  the  duties  of  good  living 
that  the  author's  experience  suggests.  He  says  in 
the  prologue :  "  That  the  reader  may  learn  wisdom 
through  his  studies,  let  this  book  give  him  the 
following  keys,"  and  then  he  begins  to  enumerate 
the  many  ways  in  which  study  and  good  living  may 
be  promoted.  This  poem  is  throughout  a  religious 
exhortation.  The  first  key  that  the  author  names 
is  the  fear  of  God.  He  then  lays  stress  upon  an 
active,  living  faith.  "  The  devil,"  he  says,  "  be- 
lieves but  is  wanting  in  faith."  He  would  have  the 
student  so  control  his  thoughts  and  intentions  that 
whatever  he  learns  shall  be  for  the  honor  and  glory 
of  God.  "  It  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  be  discreet 
in  the  use  of  the  tongue.  One  should  never  slan- 
der, never  deceive,  never  be  vain,  never  be  boastful, 
never  be  flattering,  never  false,  never  proud."  The 
E.  M.-3 


34  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

poem  next  dwells  on  the  observation  of  humility 
and  the  avoidance  of  pride;  counsels  the  student  to 
fly  jealousy.  It  would  have  him  grateful  for  favors 
received  and  forgiving  of  injuries.  Here  occurs  the 
oft-told  story  of  Friar  Sorbon  who  was  at  first  a 
teacher  in  Paris,  and  who  had  a  disciple  that  took 
special  pleasure  in  sophisms  and  special  pride  in  his 
power  of  logical  disputation.  The  disciple  died  and 
his  pride  and  vanity  were  the  cause  of  his  being 
lost.  Appearing  to  his  master  he  revealed  to  him 
his  state.  Forthwith,  the  master  entered  religion, 
renouncing  his  frivolities  of  logical  disputation,  for, 
as  he  expressed  it,  "  Death  has  no  fear  of  an  ergo!* 
In  another  section  of  this  poem  the  poet  exhorts 
the  student  to  avoid  luxury  and  excess  and  be  pure 
and  virtuous  in  his  life.  He  counsels  the  avoid- 
ance of  gluttony  and  the  being  abstemious.  He 
cautions  against  dainty  clothing  and  too  soft  a 
bed,  against  games  of  chance,  enumerating  the 
different  kinds,  against  frequent  balls  and  dances, 
against  avarice  and  cupidity,  against  extravagance 
in  giving,  advising  that  the  student  know  to  whom 
he  gives.  He  advises  the  student  to  regulate  his 
senses,  to  have  his  thoughts  so  fixed  upon  Heaven 
that  his  senses  may  afterwards  be  worthy  of 
Heaven,  being  filled  with  ^  goodness.  He  speaks 
against  associating  with  bad  company  ;  exhorts  the 
student  to  be  charitable  towards  all,  especially 
toward  his  companions;  tells  him  what  to  do,  how 
to  act  morning  and  evening,  what  prayers  to  say ; 
advises  that  the  sign  of  the  cross  be  made  when 
about  to  eat   and  drink,  and  lays  stress  upon  the 


LITERATURE.  35 

fact  that  it  should  be  the  student's  pride  to  deserve 
a  name  which  was  then  cast  upon  pious  students  in 
a  spirit  of  sarcasm,  that  of  "  Christ-worshipper," 
"  Christicola."  The  poet  continues  to  tell  how 
father  and  mother  should  be  loved  and  reverenced, 
how  mass  should  be  heard,  how  the  student  should 
pray  to  the  saints  and  honor  his  teacher.  Nor  are 
the  teachers  overlooked  in  this  poem.  To  be 
worthy  of  his  position,  the  first  thing  the  master 
must  do  if  he  would  control  his  pupils  is  discreetly 
to  control  his  own  defects.  He  is  to  avoid  all 
vanity  and  perfect  himself  in  his  studies.  Where 
peace  and  discipline  are  joined,  there  is  where 
studies  are  properly  conducted.  Such  is  the  book 
that  Buonvicina  da  Ripa  has  handed  down  from 
his  experience  of  school  life.  It  is  now  a  rare  and 
valuable  book,  and  I  have  been  able  to  see  only 
one  copy  of  it  in  the  Mazarin  Library  in  Paris. 
From  that  copy  I  extracted  the  substance  that  I 
have  just  placed  before  you. 

From  the  sixth  to  the  ninth  century  episcopal 
and  cathedral  schools  predominated.  From  the 
ninth  to  the  twelfth  century  cloistral  schools  were 
the  chief  sources  of  education  in  its  higher  and 
better  forms.  Then  schools  began  to  become  more 
secular;  teachers  imparted  instruction  with  more 
independence;  schools  were  multiplied;  teachers 
were  migratory;  students  were  migratory.  Thus 
we  read  of  Abelard,  how  he  went  from  school  to 
school  to  receive  the  instruction  for  which  his  soul 
thirsted,  and  how  afterward  he  passed  from  place 
to    place   to   impart   that    instruction    to    others. 


36  ESSA2'S   MISCELLANEOUS. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  we 
find  in  Paris  a  certain  number  of  schools  united  in 
a  common  bond.  Thus  were  there  forty  colleges 
grouped  around  the  University  of  Paris.  Of  these 
forty,  seven  gave  a  complete  course  of  instruction. 
The  others  were  merely  boarding  houses  for  the 
students  where  they  were  placed  under  a  strict 
discipline,  and  the  master  saw  that  the  students 
prepared  their  lessons  and  occasionally  heard  them 
recite.  Indeed,  this  was  the  beginning  of  our 
modern  colleges.  They  began  as  schools  for  poor 
children.  They  were  houses  of  study  opened  for 
the  poor  under  the  auspices  of  religion.  This  two- 
fold principle  of  devotion  and  poverty  left  its  im- 
press upon  these  schools.  The  principal  and  his 
assistants  lived  upon  the  mere  pittance  of  three  or 
four  sous  a  week,  and  were  not  infrequently  obliged 
to  rely  on  some  other  means  for  a  living.  Children 
went  outside  to  beg  their  daily  meals. 

Indeed,  poverty  was  the  soul  of  the  University 
of  Paris.  As  a  rule,  neither  masters  nor  pupils 
could  boast  of  riches.  Crevier,  one  of  the  his- 
torians of  the  University,  tells  us:  "The  Univer- 
sity, as  a  body,  had  little  wealth.  The  faculty  and 
the  nations  are  poor.  The  colleges  had  scarcely 
the  wherewith  to  support  their  bursars.  Every- 
thing bespeaks  poverty."  There  were  exceptions 
among  both  masters  and  students.  There  were 
foolish  students,  such  as  we  have  seen  Robert  of 
Sorbon  to  complain  of,  who  paid  little  attention  to 
real  study  and  who  lived  in  state ;  and,  again,  there 
were   masters    who    extorted    money    from    their 


LITERATURE.  87 

students.  The  statutes  of  the  universities  were 
very  severe  against  such.  A  sentiment  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  that  learning  was  too  sacred  a 
thing  to  be  bought  or  sold  for  lucre. 

The  universities  were  all  established  upon  a 
religious  basis.  The  first  essential  for  a  university 
was  a  papal  sanction,  and,  as  we  have  seen  in  our 
own  day  the  Catholic  university  rising  under  the 
papal  sanction  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  even  so  did  the 
mediaeval  universities  receive  their  life  and  being 
from  the  papal  charter.  Then,  each  university  had 
its  special  privileges  received  both  from  king  and 
from  pope.  Indeed,  it  has  been  well  said  that  a 
university  without  privileges  is  like  a  body  without 
a  soul.  Such  was  the  privilege  that  rendered  all 
students  amenable  to  the  university  authorities  in- 
stead of  the  civil  courts.  Such  was  the  privilege 
by  which  students  were  protected  against  the  ex- 
orbitant exactions  of  the  townspeople.  The  price 
of  lodgings  was  to  be  fixed  by  sworn  arbitrators, 
half  of  whom  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  univer- 
sity, half  by  the  city.  There  were  frequently 
strange  relations  existing  between  students  of  the 
university  and  the  townsfolk,  or  as  it  has  been  gen- 
erally expressed,  "  between  town  and  gown."  This 
gave  rise  to  affrays  that  ended  in  the  plundering  of 
houses  and  even  in  bloodshed.  It  was  such  a  riot 
that  caused  thousands  of  students  of  the  city  of 
Paris  to  leave  in  a  body  for  the  University  of  Ox- 
ford, and  in  1389  the  historian  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge  pictures  for  us  a  similar  riot.  He 
says: 


38  ESS  A  rS   MIS  CELL  AN B  O  US. 

"At  Corpus  Christi,  all  the  books,  charters  and 
writings  belonging  to  the  society  were  destroyed. 
At  St.  Mary's  University,  the  chest  was  broken 
open  and  the  documents  which  it  contained  met 
with  a  similar  fate.  The  masters  and  scholars  un- 
der intimidation,  surrendered  all  the  charters, 
emoluments  and  ordinances,  and  a  grand  conflagra- 
tion ensued  in  the  market  place  where  an  ancient 
beldame  was  to  be  seen  scattering  the  ashes  in  the 
air  as  she  exclaimed ;  '  Thus  perish  the  skill  of  the 
clerks.' " 

Let  this  instance  sufifice  for  what  was  of  not  in- 
frequent occurrence  in  every  university  town  in 
Christendom ;  for  we  must  not  imagine  that  stu- 
dent life  was  then  what  it  is  at  the  present  day. 
In  those  days  students  were,  many  of  them,  bare- 
footed and  ill  clad  and  poorly  fed.  They  were  for- 
bidden even  the  luxury  of  a  bench  on  which  to  sit 
during  school  hours.  They  sat  on  a  heap  of  straw 
on  the  floor.  Through  all  seasons  they  had  no  fire 
in  their  rooms.  They  seldom  ate  flesh  meat. 
They  rose  early. 

Thus,  in  "  Hesperica  Famina,"  that  curious 
book  of  the  eighth  century,  so  curiously  written,  and 
brought  to  light  in  1835  by  the  erudite  Cardinal 
Angelo  Mai,  we  read  in  the  pompous  language  of 
the  century  to  which  the  book  belongs,  that  when 
the  master  enters  the  students'  room  to  awaken 
them  they  are  supposed  to  speak  as  follows : 
"  Why  comest  thou  to  deafen  us  with  the  thunder 
of  thy  words,  to  trouble  the  cavern  of  our  ears 
with  thy  discourse  ?  We  have  passed  in  vigil  and 
study  the  time  that  night  drove  her  plow  over  the 


LITER  A  TURE.  39 

plains  of  the  heavens.  Thou  wert  then  wrapped  in 
sleep.  This  is  why  thy  lesson  finds  us  sleeping." 
From  this  we  may  know  that  the  students  of  Tou- 
louse burned  the  midnight  lamp  over  their 
studies. 

Turning  to  the  methods  of  teaching  in  those 
days,  the  first  thing  that  strikes  our  notice  is  the 
large  number  of  students  that  assembled  around  an 
eminent  professor.  Frequently  it  happened  that 
no  hall  could  contain  the  audience,  and  the  master 
lectured  in  the  open  air  in  the  public  market  place. 
This,  for  example,  is  the  tradition  of  the  place 
known  in  Paris  as  "  Place  Maubert,"  Maubert  being 
a  contraction  of  "  Mattre  Albert,"  or  the  learned 
Dominican  "  Albert  the  Great."  Such  also  were  the 
traditions  of  the  "Rue  de  Fouarre."  The  students 
generally  rose  at  prime,  that  is,  with  sunrise.  The 
regent  then  read  a  first  lesson  to  the  pupils.  All 
teaching  was  done  by  means  of  reading  from  a 
manuscript  and  explanation.  Pupils  listened,  took 
notes  in  shorthand  upon  the  tablets,  first  compared 
these  notes  among  one  another,  then  took  them 
home  and  transcribed  them  upon  leaves  of  parch- 
ment, these  parchments  being  brought  back  to  the 
professor  and  corrected  by  him.  The  student  was 
not  allowed  to  read  from  manuscript.  All  argu- 
ments and  disputations  were  carried  on  orally.  To 
give  you  an  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  pupils  in 
those  days  were  obliged  to  rely  upon  their  memory, 
I  might  mention  the  fact  that  in  1502  the  amount 
of  paper  assigned  to  each  pupil  for  note-taking  was 
three  sheets  per  week. 


40  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

Disputation  was  the  usual  method  by  which 
students  cleared  up  their  ideas  upon  the  various 
subjects  they  were  discussing.  No  degree  was 
given  without  a  previous  disputation.  They  dis- 
puted a  whole  month  in  order  to  prepare  for  the 
bachelor's  degree,  and  after  passing  their  examina- 
tion they  spent  another  month  in  disputation  in 
the  "  Rue  de  Fouarre."  The  usual  daily  regulation 
consisted,  first,  of  a  lesson  given  by  the  rector  in 
the  morning  after  rising,  then  they  retired  and  pre- 
pared their  studies  until  eleven  o'clock,  when  they 
dined.  At  noon  they  carried  on  disputations  which 
were  known  as  meridionals.  At  five  there  were 
repetitions  of  lessons  and  conferences,  during  which 
the  scholars  recited  and  answered  questions  put  by 
the  masters.  I  need  scarcely  add  that  though  not 
mentioned,  it  was  the  general  practice  for  masters 
and  students  to  assist  at  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the 
mass  in  the  morning. 

In  the  colleges  the  regulation  was  varied  some- 
what from  this.  I  have  before  me  the  regulation 
of  the  "  College  of  St.  Barbe,"  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. According  to  this,  at  four  o'clock  the  stu- 
dents arose.  Generally,  a  pupil  of  the  philosophy 
class  did  the  awakening,  and  lit  the  candles  in 
the  seasons  that  light  was  required.  At  five  the 
regents  began  the  first  lesson  which  lasted  one 
hour,  and  at  six,  mass  and  breakfast,  but  no  recrea- 
tion. From  eight  to  ten  the  chief  class  of  the 
morning  was  held,  then  till  eleven  there  were  exer- 
cises in  the  hall.  Eleven,  dinner.  This  lasted  an 
hour  and  consisted  generally  of  a  plate  of  meat  and 


LITER  A  TURB.  41 

a  plate  of  vegetables ;  the  dinner  was  accompanied 
by  reading  and  admonitions  and  prayers  for  the 
benefactors.  At  twelve  the  students  were  inter- 
rogated upon  the  morning  lessons.  Then  there 
was  an  hour's  repose  during  which  time  there  was 
public  reading  from  some  poet  or  orator.  From 
three  to  five  was  the  chief  class  of  the  afternoon. 
From  five  to  six  the  students  were  exercised  in  the 
lessons  they  had  just  heard.  At  six,  supper.  At 
seven,  another  session  in  which  the  students  were 
questioned  and  disputations  were  carried  on.  This 
was  followed  by  benediction  of  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment, and  at  nine  o'clock  the  bell  for  retiring  was 
rung.  Masters,  and  pupils  so  authorized,  could 
keep  a  candle  burning  till  eleven  o'clock.  On 
Tuesdays  and  Thursdays  pupils  had  holiday  from 
five  in  the  afternoon,  when  they  were  taken  to 
promenade  in  the  public  park  known  as  the  "  Pr6- 
aux-clercs." 

The  regulation  of  the  neighboring  College  of 
Montaign  was  similar  as  regards  the  studies.  But 
under  Standonck  the  discipline  was  more  severe. 
He  admitted  two  classes  of  scholars,  the  rich  and 
the  poor.  The  poor  boys  he  subjected  to  monastic 
discipline.  They  waited  on  the  rich  boys  and  did 
all  the  menial  work  of  the  house.  They  arose  at 
midnight  to  recite  an  office.  They  were  forbidden 
to  speak,  except  it  be  to  answer  questions.  The 
least  breach  of  discipline  was  followed  by  a  scourg- 
ing. Their  table  was  of  the  poorest.  They  went 
daily  with  other  indigent  to  beg  at  the  neighbor- 
ing Chartreux.     Rabelais  alludes  to  them  as  the 


42  ^SSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

"Montaign  sparrow-hawks" — "  Ces  sparviers  de 
Montaign."  They  never  had  meat  or  wine  for  dinner. 
Their  usual  food  was  stale  bread  with  half  an  ounce 
of  butter,  a  plate  of  vegetables  cooked  in  water,  and 
half  a  herring  or  two  hard-boiled  eggs.  Erasmus, 
who  studied  in  this  college,  stigmatizes  the  in- 
human treatment,  the  unwholesome  food,  the  bad 
regimen  and  discipline  to  which  he  attributed  his 
feeble  health  during  the  remainder  of  his  life." 
In  the  schoolroom  rich  and  poor  studied  together, 
and  the  only  distinction  recognized  was  that  of  merit. 


V. 

Books  In  the  Middle  Ages. 

As  a  rule,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  the  scholar 
had  no  text-book  in  pursuing  his  studies.  He 
listened  to  the  master  and  took  notes.  Oc- 
casionally he  would  borrow  from  a  more  fortunate 
companion  a  copy  of  the  text-book  used.  Alto- 
gether, we  may  conclude  that  text-books  were 
scarce  in  those  days.  The  schools  and  the  uni- 
versities had  copyists  attached  to  them,  and  these 
copyists  reproduced  the  text-books  in  vogue  and 
sold    them    at    reasonable    rates  to    the  students. 

Thus,  we  find  that  in  a  compact  made  between 
the  university  of  Vercelli  and  that  of  Padua,  there 
is  mention  made  of  two  copyists  who  were  to  fur- 
nish students  with  books  at  prices  set  by  the  rector. 
Our  friend,  Buonvicina  da  Ripa,  in  his  chronicle,  in 
^Colloquies,  Dial.  Fish  and  Flesh. 


LITER  A  TURE.  43 

that  fragment  of  it  which  has  survived,  tells  us  that 
in  Milan,  in  1288,  there  were  eighty  teachers  of 
grammar  and  elementary  schools,  and  fifty  copyists. 

Books  were  expensive.  It  took  a  fortune  to 
purchase  an  illuminated  manuscript.  In  1240, 
there  is  mention  of  paying  twelve  hundred  florins, 
which  were  equal  to  at  least  five  hundred  dollars  of 
our  money,  for  a  copy  of  the  missal  ornamented 
with  pictures  and  gold  letters. 

But  there  were  in  all  the  monasteries  and 
schools  libraries  that  were  open  to  professors  and 
students.  The  council  of  Paris  in  12 12  recalls  to 
the  religious  of  that  city  that  the  lending  of  books 
was  a  work  of  mercy.  The  chapter  of  Notre  Dame 
opened  its  library  in  1272,  especially  for  the  use  of 
poor  scholars.  Great  attention  was  paid  to  the 
library.  It  was,  after  the  church  or  chapel  in 
which  the  Blessed  Sacrament  was  deposited,  con- 
sidered the  most  sacred  part  of  the  monastic  edi- 
fice. Precautions  were  taken  to  preserve  the  books 
from  dampness  and  ill  usage.  Generally,  the  walls 
of  the  library  were  well  boarded,  sometimes  even 
with  precious  woods,  in  order  the  better  to  pre- 
serve the  manuscripts.  Besides  the  shelves  there 
were  desks  or  lecterns  on  which  the  manuscripts 
were  placed  and  the  more  valuable  ones  were 
chained,  just  as  in  all  the  churches  throughout 
Christendom  the  lives  of  the  patron  saints  which 
were  kept  in  each  Church  and  the  public  breviaries 
for  the  use  of  the  laity  were  chained. 

Great  precautions  were  taken  in  the  lending  of 
books,  and  here  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  the 


44  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

regulations  laid  down  for  the  librarian  of  the  con- 
vent of  St.  Victor's  in  Paris. 

"He  was  charged,"  we  are  told,"  with  all  the  books 
of  the  community.  He  should  have  an  inventory  of 
them  ;  he  should  gather  them  together,  putting  each 
in  its  proper  place,  two  or  three  times  a  year ;  he 
should  see  that  they  were  not  rotting  or  worm-eaten. 
The  volumes  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  make  any 
research  made  in  them  prompt  and  easy.  No  book 
should  be  lent  until  a  deposit  was  first  made;  and 
a  stranger  should  be  required  to  deposit  an  amount 
at  least  equal  to  that  of  the  book  borrowed.  In 
all  cases  the  librarian  should  take  in  writing  the 
name  of  the  borrower,  the  title  of  the  book  lent, 
and  the  nature  of  the  deposit  made.  The  more 
precious  books  in  the  library  should  not  be  lent 
without  the  abbot's  permission.  Books  for  daily 
use  were  placed  one  side  for  the  convenience  of  the 
clerks  requiring  them.  The  librarian  should  place 
at  the  disposition  of  the  brothers,  not  only  the 
books  requisite  for  the  celebration  of  the  Divine 
Office,  but  also  those  that  were  instructing  and 
edifying,  such  as  Bibles,  the  principal  glosses  and 
commentaries  upon  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  lives  of 
the  saints,  and  homilies.  If  a  religious  desired  to 
consult  at  leisure  any  of  the  volumes  in  the  library, 
he  might  take  it  with  him,  but  not  until  the  libra- 
rian  had  made  a  note  of   it." 

In  the  Sorbonne  library  there  were  regulations 
still  more  stringent.  For  instance,  a  reader  who  left 
a  book  open  after  using  it  was  fined  ;  also,  the  reader 
who  left  a  stranger  alone  in  the  reading  room  with- 
out locking  the  door  after  him. 

By  degrees  the  copying  of  books  became  more 
and  more  a  lucrative  trade.  Their  sale  increased, 
and  in  the   fifteenth  century   we  find  companies 


LITER  A  TURE.  45 

organized  and  centers  of  trade  established  through- 
out Europe. 

"  Long  before  the  discovery  of  printing,"  says 
Janssen,  our  eminent  Catholic  historian  of  Germany, 
"the  sale  of  manuscripts  had  taken  in  Germany, 
where  the  love  for  reading  was  widespread,  con- 
siderable proportions  and  all  the  aspects  of  a  well- 
regulated  business. 

"  In  the  large  centers  of  commerce,  particularly  in 
the  free  cities  of  the  empire,  corporations  of  copy- 
ists were  formed,  working  less  for  the  learned  than 
for  the  general  public.  Their  manuscripts,  of  which 
catalogues  were  already  made  in  due  form,  were 
delivered  to  itinerant  merchants  who  found  sale  for 
them  chiefly  at  the  annual  fairs  and  at  the  '  Ker- 
messes.'  One  of  these  merchants,  Diepold  Lauber, 
opened  a  well-furnished  shop  at  Haguenau.  The 
catalogue  of  his  goods  is  still  extant.  Therein  are 
mentioned  not  only  the  Latin  authors,  but  also  the 
best  German  poets  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  lengthy 
metrical  romances,  shorter  writings  in  prose,  legen- 
dary tales,  lives  of  the  saints,  popular  works, 
treatises  on  medicine  for  general  use,  German 
Bibles  in  rhyme  and  formulas  of  prayers.  The 
variety  of  this  catalogue  shows  that  in  the  Ger- 
many of  the  Middle  Ages  books  were  not  merely 
addressed  to  the  rich  and  the  learned." 

This  is  a  point  worthy  of  our  serious  con- 
sideration. 

It  were  well  for  us  to  note  the  fact  that  there 
was  an  abundant  supply  of  popular  literature  in 
those  early  days.  Then,  as  now,  the  supply  was  in 
proportion  to  the  demand.  If  books  were  multi- 
plied and  peddled,  it  is  because  they  were  pur- 
chased ;  if  purchased,  they  were  read ;  if  read,  the 
people  reading  them  must  have  had  an  education, 


46  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

and  thus  it  is  that  we  can  convict  of  ignorance  or 
prejudice  those  who  would  speak  of  the  Middle 
Ages  as  illiterate. 

Turning  to  France  at  the  same  period  we  find 
copyists  also  supplying  books.  Indeed,  we  have 
the  good  fortune  to  come  upon  Queen  Marie  of 
Anjou,  the  wife  of  Charles  Seventh,  in  the  very  act 
of  purchasing  schoolbooks  for  her  children.  Here 
is  the  list.  First,  an  ABC.  This  book  also  con- 
tained the  morning  and  evening  prayers  in  Latin, 
which  prayers  were  to  be  learned  by  heart.  Second, 
the  book  of  the  Seven  Psalms.  This  book  con- 
tained what  is  known  as  the  Seven  Penitential 
Psalms,  and  these  psalms  were  also  to  be  learned 
by  rote.  Third,  the  Donat.  This  was  a  grammar 
dealing  with  the  eight  parts  of  speech.  It  was 
written  by  Lilius  Donatus  in  the  fourth  century. 
Fourth,  a  book  of  accidents.  Caxton,  by  the  way 
printed  an  edition  of  this  old  book  at  Westminster. 
Fifth,  a  Cato.  There  were  two  books  under  the 
title  of  Cato,  a  large  and  a  small,  both  of  which 
were  used  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  book  here 
mentioned  is  the  small  Cato.  Cato,  I  would 
remark,  is  short  for  chatonnet.  Sixth,  a  Doctrinal. 
This,  like  the  other  two,  was  also  a  grammar, 
extracted  from  the  work  of  the  Roman  writer, 
Priscian,  and  put  into  leonine  verse  by  Alexander 
de  Villedieu.  For  these  six  volumes  the  queen 
paid  the  handsome  sum  of  six  hundred  livres  tur- 
nois,  and  for  the  grand  Cato  she  paid  a  similar  sum. 
No  doubt  these  books  were  more  beautifully  got 
up  than  the  usual  schoolbook. 


LITERATURE.  47 

As  another  instance  of  the  manner  in  which 
books  were  prized,  I  might  mention  the  fact  that 
we  find  king  Louis  the  Eleventh  approaching  the 
faculty  of  medicine  of  the  Sorbonne  for  the  loan  of 
a  rare  book  that  he  might  have  it  transcribed,  with 
all  the  diplomacy  and  caution  with  which  he  might 
have  negotiated  for  the  purchase  of  a  province. 
The  book  was  in  two  volumes  and  was  a  medical 
treatise  by  an  eminent  Arabian  physician  called 
Rheses,  and  was  the  only  copy  known  to  be  extant. 
The  faculty  so  prized  it  that  they  at  first  refused  to 
lend  it  to  the  king.  But  after  much  negotiation 
they  yielded  to  the  king's  request  on  condition 
that  he  deposit  with  them  twelve  marks  of  silver 
plate  and  give  a  note  for  one  hundred  gold  ecus 
indorsed  by  one  of  the  principal  citizens  of  Paris. 
He  gave  the  required  pledges  and  received  the 
book. 

VI. 

The  Scriptorium. 

Having  examined  the  care  taken  of  books  and 
the  general  use  made  of  them,  let  us  now  consider 
the  manner  in  which  books  were  transcribed. 
Enter  the  scriptorium.  It  is  a  large  room  with 
desks  arranged  to  face  the  wall.  The  monks  all 
stand  up  to  their  work.  Strict  silence  is  observed. 
Anything  that  would  distract  them  in  this  im- 
portant occupation  is  considered  out  of  place. 
Some  are  copyists  noted  for  their  expertness  and 
celerity  in  transcribing;  others  are  revisers  whose 


48  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

work  it  is  to  insure  accuracy  in  the  texts ;  others 
again  are  illuminators.  Each  copyist  is  supplied 
every  Sunday  with  the  materials  requisite  to  last 
him  during  the  week.  These  materials  are  ink, 
parchment,  pens  and  the  books  that  he  will  use 
either  for  reading  or  for  copying.  But  he  has 
other  materials  constantly  upon  his  desk.  There 
are  two  square  pieces  of  pumice  stone,  there  are 
two  razors  to  scrape  and  polish  the  parchment,  two 
small  horns  for  ink,  chalk,  a  brush  to  clear  away  the 
dust  and  scrapings  that  are  gathered,  an  ordinary 
bodkin,  another  of  a  finer  quality,  thread,  a  lead 
pencil,  a  ruler,  and  boards  on  which  to  extend  the 
parchment.  These  constitute  the  principal  instru- 
ments used  in  the  scriptorium.  The  director  of  the 
scriptorium  assigns  to  each  copyist  the  word  and 
page  with  which  to  begin  and  the  word  and  page 
with  which  to  end,  and  once  the  copyist  starts  out 
upon  his  work  he  is  not  permitted  to  be  disturbed 
or  distracted.  No  one  can  speak  to  him.  In  the 
monastery  of  Citeaux  each  copyist  had  his  own 
cell.  Alcuin  thus  addresses  the  copyists  of  his  day 
in  one  of  his  poems: 

"  Come  along  and  take  your  place,  you  whose 
function  it  is  to  transcribe  the  Divine  laws  and  the 
sacred  monuments  of  the  Wisdom  of  the  fathers. 
Beware  of  mingling  aught  that  is  frivolous  with 
these  wise  discourses.  Do  not  let  your  careless 
hand  commit  some  error.  Seek  pure  texts  with 
diligence  in  order  that  your  pen  in  its  rapid  flight 
may  move  in  the  right  direction.  Great  is  the 
honor  of  copying  holy  books  and  this  work  finds 
its  recompense." 


LITER  A  TURE.  49 

We  may  regard  Cassiodorus  as  the  father  of  the 
Christian  scriptorium.  Foreseeing  the  long  night 
of  misery  and  ignorance  that  was  to  follow  the 
invasion  of  the  barbarians,  he  encourages  in  a 
special  manner  the  copying  and  multiplying  of 
books.  We  have  already  seen  himself,  at  the  ven- 
erable age  of  ninety-three,  writing  a  book  on  or- 
thography. And,  speaking  to  his  monks  on  the 
transcribing  of  manuscripts,  he  grows  eloquent 
in  his  enthusiasm.     He  says  : 

"  What  a  happy  invention  and  what  a  glorious 
fatigue  is  that  which  permits  us  to  preach  to  man 
by  the  hands  as  well  as  by  the  voice,  to  substitute 
the  fingers  for  the  tongue,  to  enter  into  relations 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  without  going  out  of  our 
solitude  and  silence,  and  to  combat  with  the  ink 
and  pen  the  illicit  suggestions  of  the  devil.  Each 
word  of  Holy  Writ  transcribed  by  the  studious 
monk  is  a  wound  inflicted  on  Satan." 
E.  M.— 4 


REl2lGieN  IN  EDtiGATlON 


(»i) 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION. 
I. 

eHURCH  schools  exist  because  sincere  members 
of  every  Christian  denomination  hold  religion 
to  be  an  essential  element  of  education.  These 
Christian  members  are  convinced  that  they  would 
be  guilty  of  a  gross  breach  of  duty  were  they  to 
neglect  this  important  element  in  the  training  of 
their  children.  And  they  are  right.  Any  system 
of  education  from  which  religious  training  is  elim- 
inated were  inadequate  and  incomplete,  and, 
therefore,  an  injustice  to  the  child  receiving  it. 
Education  should  develop  the  whole  man.  Intellect 
and  heart,  body  and  soiil,  should  all  be  cultivated 
and  fitted  to  act,  each  in  its  own  sphere,  with  most 
efficiency.  And  so,  the  inculcation  of  piety,  rev- 
erence and  religious  doctrine  is  of  more  importance 
than  training  in  athletic  sports  or  mathematical 
studies.  Moreover,  other  things  being  equal,  that 
is  the  best  education  which  gives  man,  so  to  speak, 
the  best  orientation ;  which  most  clearly  defines  his 
relations  with  society  and  with  his  Creator,  which 
imparts  the  all-important  truths  concerning  his 
origin  and  his  destiny,  and  points  out  the  way  by 
which  he  may  best  attain  the  end  for  which  he  was 
created. 

Now  it  is  only  religious  teaching  that  can  fur- 
nish man  with  this  information,  and  it  is  only  in 

(58) 


54  £SSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

religious  observances  that  man  can  best  attain  the 
aim  and  purpose  of  all  life  and  promote  the  interests 
of  society.  Neither  ancient  nor  modern  philoso- 
pher has  found  a  better  solution  for  the  enigma  of 
life  than  is  to  be  found  in  religion.  Plato  could 
never  imagine  such  a  monstrous  state  of  affairs  as 
education  without  religion, 

"All  citizens,"  says  this  philosopher,  "  must  be 
profoundly  convinced  that  the  gods  are  lords  and 
rulers  of  all  that  exists,  that  all  events  depend  upon 
their  word  and  will,  and  that  mankind  is  largely  in- 
debted to  them."  ' 

We  Christians  are  no  less  convinced  that  religion 
is  as  essential  to  men  to-day  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
Plato.  Nations  cannot  live  without  its  vitalizing 
energy.  It  is  the  conservative  element  of  states,  of 
literature  and  of  civilization.  Indeed,  we  may  affirm, 
without  fear  of  being  gainsaid,  that  all  civilization 
is  rooted  in  religious  worship,  has  grown  out  of 
the  practices  of  religious  worship,  and  has  ever  been 
fostered  by  religious  worship.  Does  not  the  same 
word  —  cultus — apply  to  both?  Prayer,  which  is  a 
primary  element  of  all  worship,  accompanied  every 
important  act  undertaken  by  the  pagans  of  old. 
"The  Greeks,"  we  are  told,  "opened  all  public 
assemblies,  campaigns,  combats  and  public  games, 
even  the  theater,  with  prayer."  " 

Christianity  has  in  many  respects  changed  man's 
point  of  view.  The  pagans  made  trees  and  flowers 
the  habitations  of  gods  and  goddesses  and  earth- 

»  "  De  Legg,"  iv.,  p.  288,  cf.  "  De  Repub.,"  iv.,  p.  yie. 
'Hettinger,  "Natural  Religion,"  p.  262. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  55 

born  spirits.  Their  conception  of  nature  was 
pantheistic.  Christianity  threw  a  halo  of  tenderness 
and  poesy  of  another  kind,  over  the  animal  and 
vegetable  kingdoms  of  nature.  Its  Divine  Founder 
wove  the  lilies  of  the  field  and  the  vines  on  the  hill- 
side into  his.  discourses.  Christian  monks  made 
smiling  gardens  and  flourishing  cities  out  of  dense 
forests  and  barren  deserts.  Christian  meekness 
taught  men  to  look  upon  every  creature  of  God  as 
good.  A  St.  Anthony  tames  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
desert;  a  Francis  of  Assisi  sings  a  hymn  to  his 
brother  the  Sun,  and  exhorts  all  Nature,  animate 
and  inanimate,  to  love  and  give  thanks  to  God ;  a 
Francis  of  Sales  makes  homilies  upon  the  habits  of 
bird  and  beast  and  insect ;  a  Wordsworth  recognizes 
this  material  universe  as  a  symbol  of  the  higher 
spiritual  world. 

The  Christian  aspect  of  the  individual  is  no  less 
distinct  from  the  pagan  aspect.  In  the  ancient 
civilizations  the  individual  was  absorbed  in  the 
state.  The  state  was  the  supreme  tribunal  that 
decided  all  doubts  and  regulated  conscience  and 
conduct.  Christianity  reversed  all  this.  It  flashed 
the  white  light  of  revealed  truth  upon  man's  nature, 
lighting  up  its  intricacies,  and  giving  deeper  insight 
into  the  secret  chambers  of  the  human  heart ;  it 
taught  man  his  personal  dignity  and  his  sense  of 
responsibility ;  it  showed  him  the  temporal  and  the 
eternal  in  their  proper  relations ;  it  brought  home 
to  him  the  infinite  price  of  his  soul,  and  thus  led  him 
up  to  a  recognition  of  individual  rights  and  liberties 
that  were  unknown  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome. 


56  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS, 

We  may  trace  many  of  our  laws  and  customs  to 
pagan  days,  but  in  all  that  is  good  in  our  thinking, 
in  our  literature,  in  our  whole  education,  there  is  a 
spirit  that  was  not  in  the  thought,  the  literature 
and  the  education  of  pagan  people.  We  cannot 
rid  ourselves  of  it.  We  cannot  ignore  it  if  we 
would.  The  enemies  of  Christianity,  in  attempting 
to  lay  down  lines  of  conduct  and  establish  motives 
and  principles  of  action  to  supersede  the  teachings 
of  the  Gospel  and  the  practices  of  the  Church,  are 
forced  to  assume  the  very  principles  they  would 
supersede.  The  Christian  spirit  has  so  entered  into 
the  acts  and  feelings  and  opinions  of  life  that  it  is 
impossible  to  separate  it  from  the  purely  natural. 
Christian  sentiment.  Christian  modes  of  living, 
Christian  opinion  may  not  always  be  followed,  but 
they  are  invariably  the  ultimate  criterion — the  final 
tribunal  before  which  action  and  expression  are 
tried  and  judged.  Speaking  of  this  Christian  influ- 
ence, Mr.  Mallock  says : 

"  Its  actual  dogmas  may  be  readily  put  away 
from  us ;  not  so  the  effect  which  these  dogmas  have 
worked  during  the  course  of  centuries.  In  dis- 
guised forms  they  are  around  us  everywhere ;  they 
confront  us  in  every  human  interest,  in  every 
human  pleasure.  They  have  beaten  themselves 
into  life ;  they  have  eaten  their  way  into  it.  Like 
a  secret  sap,  they  have  flavored  every  fruit  in  the 
garden.  They  are  like  a  powerful  drug,  a  stimulant 
that  has  been  injected  into  our  whole  system." ' 

Here,  let  it  be  remarked,  lurks  the  fallacy  of 
those  who  would  regulate  conduct  without  religion. 
» "  Is  Life  Worth  Living,"  p.  97. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  67 

Their  ideal  of  life  is  still  the  Christian  ideal  without 
the  Christian  soul  —  the  vital  principle  that  made 
that  ideal  an  actuality.  In  thought  and  in  external 
conduct  they  cannot  rid  themselves  of  that  ideal. 
It  is  bred  in  the  bone ;  it  is  part  of  themselves. 

II. 

And  so,  our  modern  civilization,  look  at  it  how 
we  will,  is  Christian  in  its  nature  and  in  its  essence. 
It  is  based  upon  Christian  laws  and  Christian 
practices.  It  is  permeated  by  a  Christian  spirit. 
Christian  sentiment  has  molded  public  opinion 
and  created  the  public  conscience.  In  the  Chris- 
tian code  of  ethics  do  the  sanctity  of  marriage  and 
the  rights  of  property  find  their  firmest  support. 
Even  where  this  Christian  spirit  is  least  apparent  it 
is  still  active. 

John  Stuart  Mill  attempted  to  minimize  the 
nature  and  extent  of  this  influence.  He  considered 
himself  outside  its  pale,  but  he  could  not  help 
recognizing  its  power  in  those  to  whom  it  was  a 
living  presence,  while  contrasting  its  possible  effi- 
cacy with  what  he  considers  its  present  lack  of 
efficacy. 

"  To  what  an  extent,"  he  says,  "  doctrines  intrin- 
sically fitted  to  make  the  deepest  impression  upon 
the  mind,  may  remain  in  it  as  dead  beliefs,  without 
being  ever  realized  in  the  imagination,  the  feelings, 
the  understanding,  is  exemplified  by  the  manner  in 
which  the  majority  of  believers  hold  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity."  ' 


>  "  On  Liberty,"  p.  79. 


58  ESS  ATS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Mill  is  here  ignoring  the  purely  natural  element 
that  enters  into  human  actions.  It  has  not  oc- 
curred to  him  that  men  may  apparently  lead  ordi- 
nary lives  and  yet  the  Christian  spirit  may  be 
operating  in  them  most  heroically.  He  takes  no 
cognizance  of  the  supernatural  life,  which  is  with 
rare  exceptions  beyond  human  ken.  John  Stuart 
Mill  was  himself  carefully  guarded  against  religious 
faith  of  any  kind.  Read  his  "Autobiography,"  and 
tell  me  if  you  know  a  sadder  book  in  the  whole 
range  of  letters.  Note  the  gloom  that  overshadows 
every  page.  See  how  a  naturally  rich  and  fertile 
nature  was  cramped  and  crushed  into  a  groove  in 
which  half  its  energies  were  paralyzed.  There 
hover  throughout  the  book  darkness  and  confusion 
concerning  right  and  wrong  and  moral  responsi- 
bility that  are  appalling.  Even  Mill,  in  the  very 
deference  he  paid  to  public  opinion  in  his  conduct, 
was  unconsciously  doing  homage  to  the  Christian 
faith  that  molded  that  opinion  in  England. 

Men  may  now  speculate  as  to  what  the  actual 
state  of  the  world  would  be  had  Christianity  not 
entered  as  a  disturbing  element  deflecting  human 
progress  from  its  former  course.  Such  speculations 
are  safe.  The  work  is  done.  The  barbarian  who 
despised  Roman  civilization 'and  sought  its  destruc- 
tion has  been  Christianized;  his  fierce  nature  has 
been  curbed  and  tamed ;  he  has  been  raised  up 
into  a  plane  of  culture  and  refinement,  and  im- 
bued with  an  ideal  of  life  that  no  formative 
influence  outside  of  Christianity  could  have  given 
him.      If    there     still     crops    out    traces    of    our 


RELIGION   IN  EDUCATION.  59 

heredity  from  the  barbarian,  and  crime  is  ram- 
pant, this  is  no  part  of  Christianity.  It  is  rather  in 
spite  of  Christian  influence.  Were  men  to  live  up 
to  the  perfection  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
were  they  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
His  justice,  they  would  still  be  possessors  of  all 
that  is  good  in  our  modern  civilization  without  the 
misery  and  crime  that  now  fester  at  its  door.  Grace 
does  not  destroy  nature.  Human  nature  at  all  times 
and  under  all  circumstances  remains  prone  to  evil. 

Civilization,  considered  in  itself,  only  places 
more  effective  weapons  in  the  hands  of  the  criminal. 
It  is  a  natural  good,  and  as  such  is  subject  to  the 
accidents  of  every  natural  good ;  therefore  to  evil ; 
therefore  to  abuse;  therefore  to  crime.  Far  from 
being  an  antidote  to  vice  and  crime,  it  may  pro- 
mote the  one  and  the  other,  and  civilization  not 
unfrequently  does  so  in  creating  new  and  expensive 
wants,  increasing  man's  capacity  for  enjoyment, 
and  so  feeding  selfishness  as  to  render  concupis- 
cence all  the  more  intense  for  being  the  more 
refined.  Here  lies  the  fallacy  of  unscrupulous  and 
hard-headed  Bernard  Mandeville  in  his  "  Fable  of 
the  Bees."  What  is  of  accident  he  mistook  for  the 
essence  of  civilization.  * 

Civilization,  then,  possesses  in  itself  certain 
elements  of  disintegration.  But  in  Christianity 
there  is  a  conservative  force  that  resists  all  decay. 
Christian  thought.  Christian  dogma,  and  Christian 
morals  never  grow  old,  never  lose  their  efficiency 

'  Berkeley  refutes  several  of  Mandeville's  fallacies  in  his 
"  Alciphron." 


60  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

with  the  advance  of  any  community  in  civilized 
life.  John  Stuart  Mill  is  not  of  our  opinion.  To 
his  mind  the  world  would  have  got  on  all  the 
better  were  there  no  Christian  religion.  He  has  to 
revert  to  the  Koran  to  find  civic  virtue  inculcated. 
He  considers  the  character  of  Christian  morality  to 
be  negative  rather  than  positive.  It  set  up,  accord- 
ing to  him,  "  a  standard  of  ethics  in  which  the  only 
worth,  professedly  recognized,  is  that  of  obedience." 
In  this  patronizing  fashion  does  he  summarize  his 
judgment : 

"That  mankind  owes  a  great  debt  to  this  mo- 
rality and  its  early  teachers,  I  should  be  the  last 
person  to  deny ;  but  I  do  not  scruple  to  say  of  it, 
that  it  is  in  many  important  points  incomplete  and 
one-sided,  and  that  unless  ideas  and  feelings  not 
sanctioned  by  it  had  contributed  to  the  formation 
of  European  life  and  character,  human  affairs  would 
have  been  in  a  worse  condition  than  they  now  are." ' 

Evidently  John  Stuart  Mill  never  grasped  the  sub- 
lime scope  and  meaning  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Has  he  never  learned  that  that  religion  is  not 
concerned  with  the  material  side  of  our  civilization? 
Its  mission  is  chiefly  to  the  spiritual  side  of  man. 
Its  aim  is  to  establish  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the 
human  soul.  It  does  not  attempt  to  destroy  man's 
natural  talents  and  capacities-  it  takes  these  things 
for  granted  and  seeks  to  control  their  use  only 
through  his  conscience. 

By  the  side  of  Mill's  inadequate  estimate  of 
Christianity,  let  us  place  another  from  one  who  has 
cast  from  him  the  last  shred  of  religious  dogmas. 

^"On  Liberty,"  p.  94. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  61 

Mr.  Lecky  in  a  more  enlightened  spirit  bears  wit- 
ness to  the  perennial  character  of  Christianity  as  a 
conservative  force. 

"  There  is,"  he  says,  "  but  one  example  of  a  re- 
ligion which  is  not  naturally  weakened  by  civili- 
zation, and  that  example  is  Christianity.  .  .  . 
But  the  great  characteristic  of  Christianity,  and 
the  great  moral  proof  of  its  divinity,  is  that  it 
has  been  the  main  source  of  the  moral  development 
of  Europe,  and  that  it  has  discharged  this  office, 
not  so  much  by  the  inculcation  of  a  system  of 
ethics,  however  pure,  as  by  the  assimilating  and 
attractive  influence  of  a  perfect  ideal.  The  moral 
progress  of  mankind  can  never  cease  to  be  dis- 
tinctively and  intensely  Christian,  as  long  as  it 
consists  of  a  gradual  approximation  to  the  character 
of  the  Christian  Founder.  There  is,  indeed,  noth- 
ing more  wonderful  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race  than  the  way  in  which  that  ideal  has  traversed 
the  lapse  of  ages,  acquiring  a  new  strength  and 
beauty  with  each  advance  of  civilization,  and  in- 
fusing its  beneficent  influence  into  every  sphere  of 
thought  and  action."  ' 

This  is  unstinted  praise ;  here  is  at  least  one 
chapter  of  the  world's  history  that  Mr.  Lecky  has 
not  misread. 

Thus  is  it  that  even  according  to  the  testimony 
of  those  who  are  not  of  us,  our  modern  civilization 
has  in  it  a  unique  element,  divine  and  imperishable 
in  its  nature,  growing  out  of  its  contact  with  the 
Christ.  That  characterizing  element  is  Christianity. 
Individuals  may  repudiate  it,  but  as  a  people  we 
are  still  proud  to  call   ourselves  Christians.     We 

*  "Rationalism  in  Europe,"  i.,  pp.  311,  313. 


62  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

have  not  come  to  that  pass  at  which  we  are 
ashamed  of  the  cross  in  which  St.  Paul  gloried. 
The  teachings  and  practices  of  Christianity  form  an 
essential  part  of  our  education.  They  are  inti- 
mately blended  with  our  whole  personal  life.  Chris- 
tian influences  must  needs  preside  over  every 
important  act  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave. 

So  the  Church  thinks,  and  she  acts  accordingly. 
The  new-born  infant  is  consecrated  with  prayer  and 
ceremonial  to  a  Christian  line  of  conduct  when  the 
saving  waters  of  baptism  are  poured  upon  its  head ; 
the  remains  of  the  Christian  are  laid  in  the  grave 
with  prayer  and  ceremonial.  At  no  time  in  the  life 
of  man  does  the  Church  relax  in  her  care  of  him. 
Least  of  all  is  she  disposed  to  leave  him  to  himself 
at  that  period  when  he  is  most  amenable  to  impres- 
sion and  when  she  can  best  lay  hold  upon  his  whole 
nature  and  mold  it  in  the  ideal  that  is  solely  hers. 
Therefore  is  the  Church  ever  jealous  of  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  secularism  to  stand  between  her  and 
the  child  she  has  marked  for  her  own  with  the  sign 
of  salvation  through  baptismal  rites.  She  knows 
no  compromise;  she  can  entertain  no  compromise; 
she  has  no  room  for  compromise,  for  she  has  never 
had  a  moment's  indecision  on  the  matter  of  educa- 
tion. 

III. 

Secularism  in  education  has  assumed  many 
phases.  We  shall  dwell  upon  a  few  of  the  theories 
proposed  to  supersede  religious  training  in  the 
schools.  M.  Ernest  Renan  has  aired  his  views 
upon  education.     It  goes  without  saying  that  M. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  68 

Renan  excludes  what  he  calls  theology  as  an  educa- 
tional factor.  He  will  have  none  of  it.  He  asks  us 
to  witness  the  ages  that  were  under  the  sway  of 
churchmen  and  theologians,  and  note  the  little 
progress  they  made  in  science,  forgetting  the  bar- 
barous character  of  his  ancestors  when  they  first 
came  under  Christian  influences,  forgetting  also  the 
slow  process  by  which  a  people  is  reformed,  refined, 
civilized.  He  would  ignore  the  fact  that  these 
ages  are  an  intermediate  link  between  barbarism 
and  our  present  enlightenment.  Were  it  not  for 
those  theological  times  which  M.  Renan  now  looks 
down  upon,  even  he  would  to-day  be  utterly  inca- 
pable of  making  his  fine  phrases.  Now,  M.  Renan 
divides  all  educational  responsibility  between  the 
family  and  the  state.  He  considers  the  professor 
competent  to  instruct  in  secular  knowledge  only. 
The  family  he  regards  as  the  true  educator.    He  asks : 

"  This  purity  and  delicacy  of  conscience,  the 
basis  of  all  morality,  this  flower  of  sentiment  which 
will  one  day  be  the  charm  of  man,  this  intellectual 
refinement  sensitive  to  the  most  delicate  shades  of 
meaning,  where  may  the  child  and  the  youth  learn 
these  things?  Is  it  in  lectures  attentively  listened 
to,  or  in  books  learned  by  heart?  Not  at  all, 
gentlemen;  these  things  are  learned  in  the  atmos- 
phere in  which  one  lives,  in  the  social  environment 
in  which  one  is  placed ;  they  are  learned  through 
family  life,  not  otherwise.  Instruction  is  given  in 
class,  at  the  lyceum,  in  the  school ;  education  is  im- 
parted in  the  home;  the  masters  here  are  the 
mothers,  the  sisters." ' 

,  *  "La  Reformer"  La  Part  de  la  Famille  et  de  1'  fetat  dans 
1'  Education,  p.  316. 


64  JSSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS, 

True  it  is  that  the  state  is  not  competent  to 
form  conscience ;  no  less  true  is  it  that  the  family 
is  the  great  molder  of  character.  The  sanctuary  of 
a  good  home  is  a  child's  safest  refuge.  There  he  is 
wrapped  in  the  panoply  of  a  mother's  love  and  a 
mother's  care.  This  love  and  this  care  are  the  sun- 
shine in  which  his  moral  nature  grows  and  blossoms 
into  goodness.  The  child,  the  youth  blessed  with 
a  Christian  home  in  which  he  sees  naught  but  good 
example  and  hears  naught  but  edifying  words,  has 
indeed  much  to  be  thankful  for ;  it  is  a  boon  which 
the  longest  life  of  gratitude  can  but  ill  requite.  But 
M.  Renan  wants  neither  home  nor  child  Christian. 
He  would  establish  a  religion  of  beauty,  of  culture, 
indeed  of  anything  and  everything  that  is  not 
religion.  The  refining  and  educating  influence  he 
means  is  the  "eternally-womanly" — das  Ewige- 
Weibliche — of  Goethe.  It  is  a  sexual  influence.  It 
is  a  continuous  appeal  to  the  gallantry  and  chivalry 
of  the  boy-nature.  This  and  nothing  more.  Is  it 
sufficient  as  an  educational  influence  ?  Without 
other  safeguard  the  boy  soon  outgrows  the  defer- 
ence and  respect  and  awe  that  woman  naturally 
inspires.  That  is  indeed  a  superficial  knowledge  of 
human  nature  which  would  reduce  the  chief  factor 
of  a  child's  education  to  womanly  influence  uncon- 
secrated  by  religion,  unrestrained  by  the  sterner 
authority  of  the  father,  the  law,  the  social  custom. 

The  child  of  a  Christian  home,  where  some 
member  of  the  family  is  competent  and  willing  to 
give  him  religious  instruction  regularly  and  with 
method,    might    attend    a  purely    secular    school 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  65 

without  losing  the  Christian  spirit.  But  these  con- 
ditions obtain  only  in  exceptional  cases.  What  has 
M.  Renan  to  say  to  the  home  in  which  the  father 
is  absorbed  in  making  money  and  the  mother  is 
equally  absorbed  in  spending  that  money  in  worldly 
and  frivolous  amusements,  and  the  children  are 
abandoned  to  the  care  of  servants  ?  And  what  has 
he  to  say  of  the  home  without  the  mother?  And 
the  home  in  which  example  and  precept  are  del- 
eterious to  the  growth  of  manly  character?  And 
then  consider  the  sunless  homes  of  the  poor  and 
the  indigent,  where  the  struggle  for  life  is  raging 
with  all  intensity ;  consider  the  home  of  the  work- 
ingman,  where  the  father  is  out  from  early  morning 
to  late  at  night,  and  the  mother  is  weighed  down 
with  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  a  large  family  and 
drudging  away  all  day  long  at  household  duties 
never  done ;  to  speak  of  home  education  and  deli- 
cacy of  conscience  and  growth  of  character  among 
such  families  and  under  such  conditions  were  a 
mockery.  But  M.  Renan  has  as  happy  a  facility  in 
ignoring  facts  as  in  brushing  away  whole  epochs  of 
history. 

There  are  others  —  Christian  gentlemen  at 
that — who  would  keep  religion  out  of  the  school 
while  relegating  it  to  the  family  and  the  church. 
The  late  revered  Howard  Crosby,  in  his  last  pub- 
lished utterance,  says:  "Religion  is  too  sacred  a 
thing  to  be  committed  for  its  teaching  to  the 
public  official.  It  belongs  to  the  fireside  and  the 
church."  '     But  why  should  the  public  official  have 

^Educational  Review,  May,  1891,  p.  445. 
E.  M.— 5 


60  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Wy  voice  regarding  the  teaching  of  religion?  Why 
should  the  state  dictate  what  shall  or  shall  not  be 
taught  ?  Even  M.  Renan  hesitated  to  give  the 
state  any  say  in  the  matter  of  controlling  education. 
However,  since  the  state  controls  the  disbursement 
of  the  people's  money,  collected  solely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  on  good  government,  by  all  means 
let  the  state  see  to  it  that  those  who  are  paid  out 
of  the  people's  money  to  teach  the  people's  children, 
be  competent  to  perform  their  duties,  and  that  the 
subject-matter  taught  be  such  as  shall  not  prevent 
the  child  from  becoming  a  good  and  useful  citizen. 
But  let  us  never  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
the  people  do  not  belong  to  the  state,  and  that 
the  machinery  we  call  the  state  is  the  servant  of  the 
people,  organized  to  do  the  will  of  the  people. 
Were  we  to  witness  a  paid  ofificial  of  the  state 
strutting  about  during  his  brief  hour  of  authority 
giving  out  his  opinions  as  the  law  of  the  state, 
identifying  the  state  with  himself,  we  would  smile 
in  pity  at  the  spectacle;  but  were  we  to  witness 
the  pronouncements  of  this  poor  egotist  accepted 
seriously  by  any  body  of  men  as  bearing  the  weight 
and  authority  of  the  state,  because,  forsooth,  the 
man  so  speaking  happens  for  the  moment  to  be 
stamped  with  the  official  seUl  of  the  state,  then  in- 
deed were  there  a  sight  at  which  angels  might  with 
reason  weep.  Then  might  we  tremble  lest  the 
spirit  that  gave  life  and  being  to  our  republic  were 
fast  receding  from  the  body  politic.  A  great 
monarch  might  say,  without  injury  to  his  dignity, 
"  I  am  the  state ;"  but  it  is  blasphemy  and  political 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  67 

heresy,  rank  and  odious  in  the  nostrils  of  any  intel- 
ligent citizen,  to  hear  any  fellow-citizen  of  a  free 
state  give  his  personal  opinions  all  the  weight  and 
force  that  attach  to  the  laws  of  the  state.' 

And  here,  while  defending  the  state  against  any 
usurpation  of  its  power,  let  us  also  assert  the  right 
of  the  parent.  The  parent  has  no  intention  of 
abdicating  his  right  to  educate  the  child.  The 
right  is  his;  he  means  to  hold  it.  If  he  educates 
his  child  himself,  all  well  and  good.  School  laws 
are  not  made  for  the  parent  who  educates  his  own 
child.  If  he  does  not  himself  educate  the  child, 
it  is  for  him  to  say  who  shall  replace  him  in  this 
important  function.  In  making  this  decision  the 
Christian  parent  is  generally  guided  by  the  Church. 
The  Church  is  preeminently  a  teaching  power  — 
that  teaching  power  extending  chiefly  to  the  for- 
mation of  character  and  the  development  of  the 
supernatural  man.  Her  Divine  Founder  said:  "All 
power  is  given  to  Me  in  heaven  and  on  earth ; 
going,  therefore,  teach  all  nations."  The  Church 
holds  that,  of  all  periods  in  the  life  of  man,  the 
period  of  childhood  and  youth,  when  the  heart  is 
plastic  and  character  is  shaping,  and  formative  in- 
fluences leave  an  indelible  impress,  is  the  one  in 
which  religion  can  best  mold  conduct  and  best  give 
color  to  thought ;  and  therefore  the  Church  exhorts 
and  encourages  the  Christian  parent  to  make  many 
and  great  sacrifices  in  order  to  procure  a  Christian 


^  A  careful  reading  of  the  Educational  Report  of  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts,  for  1890,  will  make  evident  the 
meaning  of  these  remarks. 


68  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

education  for  his  children.  It  is  the  natural  right 
of  every  Christian  child  to  receive  this  education. 
It  is  the  natural  right  and  bounden  duty  of  the 
parent,  by  the  twofold  obligation  of  the  natural  law 
and  the  divine  law,  to  provide  his  child  with  this 
education.  And  the  right  being  natural  it  is  in- 
alienable ;  being  inalienable  it  is  contrary  to  the 
fundamental  principles  of  justice  to  attempt  to 
force  upon  the  child  any  other  form  of  educa- 
tion, or  to  hinder  the  child  in  the  pursuit  of  this 
education,  or  to  impose  upon  the  child  a  system 
of  education  that  would  in  the  least  tend  to  with- 
draw him  from  the  light  and  sweetness  of  the 
faith  that  is  his  inheritance. 

"  Compulsory  education,"  says  the  eminent  and 
fair-minded  churchman,  Cardinal  Manning,  *'  with- 
out free  choice  in  matters  of  religion  and  conscience, 
is,  and  ever  must  be,  unjust  and  destructive  of  the 
moral  life  of  a  people."' 

It  is  a  breach  of  the  social  pact  that  under- 
lies all  state  authority.  That  pact  calls  for  the 
protection  of  rights,  not  for  their  violation  or 
usurpation.  And  so,  if  the  Christian  parent  would 
give  his  child  a  Christian  education,  there  is  no 
power  on  earth  entitled  or  privileged  to  stand 
between  him  and  the  fulfillment  of  his  wish. 

But  we  are  told  that  the  child  may  learn  the 
truths  of  his  religion  in  Sunday  school,  and  that  re- 
ligion is  too  sacred  a  thing  for  the  schoolroom.  Can 
you  imagine  an  hour  or  two  a  week  devoted  to  the 
most  sacred  of  subjects  at  all  in  keeping  with  the 

»  The  Forum  t  March,  1887,  p.  66. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  60 

importance  of  that  subject?  Can  you  imagine  a 
child  able  to  realize  the  power,  the  beauty,  the 
holiness  of  religion  from  the  fact  that  he  is  required 
to  give  only  an  hour  or  two  out  of  the  whole  seven 
times  twenty-four  hours  of  the  week  to  learn  its 
truths?  Again  let  us  quote  the  same  eminent 
authority  whose  words  will  bear  more  weight  with 
them  than  any  we  could  utter: 

"The  heartless  talk,"  says  Cardinal  Manning, 
"  about  teaching  and  training  children  in  religion 
by  their  parents,  and  at  home,  and  in  the  evening 
when  parents  are  worn  out  by  daily  toil,  or  in  one 
day  in  seven  by  Sunday  schools,  deserves  no 
serious  reply.  To  sincere  common  sense  it  an- 
swers itself."  '  "  Heartless  talk  .  .  .  deserves 
no  serious  reply." 

Hard  words  these;  but  their  fitness  is  all  the 
more  apparent  the  more  we  study  the  question. 

The  Church,  who  is,  above  all,  the  mother  and 
protectress  of  the  poor,  sets  her  face  against  any 
such  arrangement,  and  insists  that  wherever  possible 
her  children  —  especially  her  poor  children  —  shall 
have  a  religious  training.  She  makes  it  binding 
upon  the  consciences  of  Christian  parents.  They 
are  not  free  as  regards  the  character  of  the  edu- 
cation they  should  provide  for  their  children. 
Believing,  as  every  Christian  parent  does,  that  man 
is  created  for  a  supernatural  end,  that  that  end  can 
be  attained  in  a  Christian  community  only  through 
a  knowledge  of  Christian  truths  and  the  practice  of 
Christian   virtues,  naught  remains  for  him  but  to 


'  "  National  Education : "  The  School  Rate,  p.  38. 


70  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

see  to  it  that  his  child  has  the  advantage  of  this 
Christian  education,  given  by  teachers  who  can  in- 
culcate these  truths  and  instill  the  practice  of  these 
virtues.  The  Church  alone  is  competent  to  pro- 
nounce upon  the  teachers  and  guarantee  their 
accuracy  in  the  matter  of  faith  and  morals.  Here 
is  how  the  Christian  Church  enters  as  an  essential 
factor  into  Christian  education. 

Religion  is  sacred,  and  because  it  is  so  sacred  a 
thing  it  should  not  be  excluded  from  the  school- 
room. It  is  not  a  garment  to  be  donned  or  doffed 
at  will.  It  is  not  something  to  be  folded  away 
carefully  as  being  too  precious  for  daily  use.  It 
is  rather  something  to  be  so  woven  into  the 
warp  and  woof  of  thought  and  conduct  and 
character,  into  one's  very  life,  that  it  becomes 
a  second  nature  and  the  guiding  principle  of  all 
one's  actions.  Can  this  be  effected  by  banish- 
ing religion  from  the  schoolroom?  Make  religion 
cease  to  be  one  with  the  child's  thoughts  and  words 
and  acts  —  one  with  his  very  nature  —  at  a  time 
when  the  child's  inquisitiveness  and  intellectual 
activity  are  at  their  highest  pitch ;  cause  the  child 
to  dispense  with  all  consciousness  of  the  Divine 
Source  of  light  and  truth  in  hi^s  thinking ;  eliminate 
from  your  text-books  in  history,  in  literature,  in 
philosophy,  the  conception  of  God's  providence,  of 
His  ways  and  workings,  and  you  place  the  child 
on  the  way  to  forget,  or  ignore,  or  mayhap  deny 
that  there  is  such  a  being  as  God  and  that  His 
providence  is  a  reality.  The  child  is  frequently 
more  logical  than  the  man.     If  the  thought  of  God, 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  71 

the  sense  of  God's  intimate  presence  everywhere, 
the  holy  name  of  Jesus  be  eliminated  from  the 
child's  consciousness  and  be  forbidden  his  tongue  to 
utter  with  reverence  in  prayer  during  school  hours, 
why  may  not  these  things  be  eliminated  outside  of 
school  hours?  Why  may  they  not  be  eliminated 
altogether?  So  may  the  child  reason ;  so  has  the 
child  reasoned ;  and  therefore  does  the  Church  seek 
to  impress  upon  it  indelibly  the  sacred  truths  of 
religion  in  order  that  they  may  be  to  it  an  ever- 
present  reality. 

Not  that  religion  can  be  imparted  as  a  knowl- 
edge of  history  or  grammar  is  taught.  The 
repetition  of  the  Catechism  or  the  reading  of  the 
Gospel  is  not  religion.  Religion  is  something  more 
subtle,  more  intimate,  more  all-prevading.  It 
speaks  to  head  and  heart.  It  is  an  everliving 
presence  in  the  schoolroom.  It  is  reflected  from 
the  pages  of  one's  reading  books.  It  is  nourished 
by  the  prayers  with  which  one's  daily  exercises 
are  opened  and  closed.  It  controls  the  affections; 
it  keeps  watch  over  the  imagination  ;  it  permits  to 
the  mind  only  useful  and  holy  and  innocent 
thoughts;  it  enables  the  soul  to  resist  tempta- 
tion ;  it  guides  the  conscience ;  it  inspires  a 
horror  for  sin  and  a  love  for  virtue.  The  re- 
ligion that  could  be  cast  off  with  times  and 
seasons  were  no  religion.  True  religion  may  be 
likened  to  the  ethereal  substance  that  occupies 
interstellar  space.  This  substance  permeates  all 
bodies.  There  is  no  matter  so  compact  that  it  does 
not  enter,  and  between  the  atoms  of  which  it  does 


72  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS, 

not  circulate.  Even  so  should  it  be  with  religion. 
It  should  form  an  essential  portion  of  our  life.  It 
should  be  the  very  atmosphere  of  our  breathing. 
It  should  be  the  soul  of  our  every  action.  We 
should  live  under  its  influence,  act  out  its  precepts, 
think  and  speak  according  to  its  laws  as  uncon- 
sciously as  we  breathe.  It  should  be  so  intimate 
a  portion  of  ourselves  that  we  could  not,  even  if  we 
would,  ever  get  rid  thereof.  This  is  religion  as  the 
Church  understands  religion.  Therefore  does  the 
Church  foster  the  religious  spirit  in  every  soul  con- 
fided to  her,  at  all  times,  under  all  circumstances, 
without  rest,  without  break,  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave.  Place  yourself  at  this  point  of  view 
and  say  if,  believing  all  this,  child  of  yours 
should  receive  any  other  than  a  religious  edu- 
cation. 

We  may  have  too  little  religion ;  we  may  be  too 
sparing  in  giving  to  prayer  and  communion  with 
God  only  a  few  hasty  moments  morning  and  even- 
ing; we  may  grudge  Him  an  occasional  reverential 
thought  during  our  waking  hours;  we  may  ignore 
our  dependence  on  Him;  we  may  forget  to  thank 
him  for  the  natural  blessings  of  life  and  health  and 
the  supernatural  blessing  of  grace  and  redemption ; 
but  we  can  never  become  too  deeply  imbued  with 
these  and  other  sentiments  that  make  up  the  re- 
ligious spirit.  That  were  an  inadequate  and  an 
unworthy  conception  of  God  that  would  represent 
Him  as  growing  weary  of  our  importunity  in  prayer 
and  aspiration.  There  is  much  truth  in  the  words 
of  Ruskin : 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  .    73 

"We  treat  God  with  irreverence  by  banishing 
Him  from  our  thoughts,  not  by  referring  to  His  will 
on  slight  occasions.  His  is  not  the  finite  authority 
or  intelligence  which  cannot  be  troubled  with 
small  things.  There  is  nothing  so  small  but  that 
we  may  honor  God  by  asking  His  guidance  of  it,  or 
insult  Him  by  taking  it  into  our  own  hands;  and 
what  is  true  of  the  Deity  is  equally  true  of  His 
Revelation.  We  use  it  most  reverently  when  most 
habitually ;  our  insolence  is  in  ever  acting  without 
reference  to  it ;  our  true  honoring  of  it  is  in  its  uni- 
versal application."  ' 

The  God  of  the  Christian  is  an  infinite,  a  per- 
sonal and  a  loving  God.  Surely  no  father  among 
a  Christian  people,  having  at  heart  the  welfare  of 
son  or  daughter,  would  allow  either  to  grow  to  the 
estate  of  manhood  or  womanhood  without  having 
ever  bent  the  knee  in  prayer  before  that  infinite, 
personal  and  loving  God,  or  without  having  learned 
and  become  imbued  with  any  of  the  great  funda- 
mental truths  of  Christianity.  Surely  no  man 
understanding  human  nature,  and  having  at  heart 
the  good  of  society,  would  advocate  that  the  rising 
generation  should  be  brought  up  without  any  re- 
ligious form  of  belief. 

IV. 

Even  our  secularists  —  those  of  them  the  most 
radical — while  not  believing  in  the  intrinsic  worth 
of  religion  or  morality,  would  still  uphold  them 
both  to  a  certain  extent,  not  because  they  regard 
them  as  true,  but  because  they  consider  them 
wholesome  fictions  for  the  people.      Strauss,  who 

'  Selections,  p.  404. 


74  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

had  spent  a  long  and  laborious  life  in  undermining 
the  religion  of  Christ,  while  claiming  for  individuals 
the  right  to  accept  or  reject  all  forms  of  belief,  rec- 
ognizes now,  and  far  into  the  future,  the  necessity 
of  a  church  for  the  majority  of  mankind. 

"  We  do  not  for  a  moment ,'  he  says,  "  ignore  the 
actual^  and  still  for  a  long  time  the  prospective,  ne- 
cessity of  a  church  for  the  majority  of  mankind ; 
whether  it  will  remain  thus  to  the  end  of  human 
affairs,  we  regard  as  an  open  question ;  but  we  re- 
gard as  a  prejudice  the  opinion  which  deems  that 
every  individual  must  belong  to  a  church,  and  that 
he  to  whom  the  old  no  longer  suffices  must  join  a 
new  one." ' 

He  who  believed  neither  in  a  church  nor  in  a 
God,  who  would  dry  up  the  sources  of  all  conso- 
lation in  this  life,  and  shut  out  every  glimpse  of 
hope  for  the  life  to  come,  still  considered  what 
from  his  point  of  view  was  a  myth  and  an  illusion, 
a  necessity  for  the  well-being  of  society.  And 
Renan  has  expressed  a  similar  opinion  in  regard  to 
morality.  While  denying  its  obligations  he  ac- 
knowledges its  necessity.  "  Nature,"  he  says,  "  has 
need  of  the  virtue  of  individuals,  but  this  virtue  is 
an  absurdity  in  itself;  men  are  duped  into  it  for 
the  preservation  of  the  race.".'  This  mode  of  rea- 
soning will  never  do.  If  religion  and  morality  are 
merely  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  then  had  they  better 
not  be.  You  cannot  gather  grapes  from  thorns. 
You  cannot  sow  a  lie  and  reap  truth.  Think  of  all 
that  is  meant  by  such  statements  as  these.     Can 

»"The  Old  Faith  and  the  New,"  pp.  ii6,  117. 
""Dialogues  Philosophiques,"  intro.,  xiv-xvii. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  75 

you  imagine  a  commonwealth  erected  upon  false- 
hood or  deceit  entering  into  the  very  fabric  of  the 
universe?  It  is  all  implied  in  the  assumption  of 
Renan  and  Strauss.  Teach  a  child  that  religion 
and  morality  are  in  themselves  meaningless,  though 
good  enough  for  the  preservation  of  society,  and 
you  sow  in  his  heart  the  seeds  of  pessimism  and 
self-destruction. 

Then  there  are  those  who,  believing  in  religion 
and  morality,  still  maintain,  in  all  sincerity,  that 
these  things  may  be  divorced  in  the  schoolroom. 
Dr.  Crosby,  in  the  article  already  quoted,  says  : 

"While  I  thus  oppose  the  teaching  of  religion 
in  our  public  schools,  I  uphold  the  teaching  of 
morality  there.  To  say  that  religion  and  morality 
are  one  is  an  error.  To  say  that  religion  is  the  only 
true  basis  of  morality  is  true.  But  this  does  not 
prove  that  morality  cannot  be  taught  without 
teaching  religion." 

It  proves  nothing  else.  The  distinction  between 
religion  and  morality  is  fundamental.  But  be  it 
remembered  that  we  are  now  dealing  with  Christian 
children,  having  Christian  fathers  and  mothers  who 
are  desirous  of  making  those  children  thoroughly 
Christian.  Now  you  cannot  mold  a  Christian  soul 
upon  a  purely  ethical  training.  In  practice  you 
cannot  separate  religion  from  morality.  A  code  of 
ethics  will  classify  one's  passions,  one's  vices,  one's 
virtues,  one's  moral  habits  and  tendencies,  but  it  is 
quite  unable  to  show  how  passion  may  be  overcome 
or  virtue  acquired.  It  is  only  from  the  revelation 
of  Christianity  that  we  learn  the  cause  of  our  innate 


76  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

proneness  to  evil;  it  is  only  in  the  saving  truths 
of  Christianity  that  we  find  the  meaning  and  the 
motive  of  resisting  that  tendency.  Let  us  not 
deceive  ourselves ;  the  morality  that  is  taught  apart 
from  religious  truth  and  religious  sanction  is  a 
delusion. 

"  It  will  be  difficult,"  says  Professor  John  Bas- 
com,  with  more  reason  than  Dr.  Howard  Crosby, 
"  it  will  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  separate 
vigorous  moral  influences  from  the  spiritual  inspi- 
ration with  which  they  are  associated  in  the  com- 
munity, and  to  employ  them  effectively  in  this 
mutilated  form." ' 

This  follows  from  man's  very  nature  and  con- 
stitution. Man  is  not  a  pure  intelligence.  He  has 
feeling  and  impulse  as  well  as  reason,  and  not 
unfrequently  is  reason  carried  away  by  feeling  and 
impulse.  Merely  to  know  the  right  does  not  always 
lead  to  the  doing  of  it.  Action  requires  more 
powerful  motives  than  those  arising  from  knowl- 
edge ;  motives,  the  root  of  which  lie  far  beyond  the 
domain  of  reason. 

"  We  cannot  doubt,"  says  Lord  Bacon,  "  that  a 
large  part  of  the  moral  law  is  too  sublime  to  be  at- 
tained by  the  light  of  nature,  though  it  is  still 
certain  that  men,  even  with,  the  light  and  law  of 
nature,  have  some  notions  of  virtue,  vice,  justice, 
wrong,  good  and  evil." " 

Even  religion  itself,  when  rationalized  and  re- 
duced to  a  science,  may  cease  to  be  vitalizing.  The 
light  and  warmth  have   then   passed  out  from  it; 

*  TAe  Forum,  March,  1891,  p.  60. 

'  "  De  Augmentis  Scientiarum,"  §  28. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  Tl 

its  controlling  influence  upon  the  conscience  has 
ceased  ;  conduct,  no  longer  guided  by  the  still  small 
voice  of  conscience,  falls  back  upon  reason,  or 
prudence,  or  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  or, 
mayhap,  runs  riot  under  the  lash  of  passion  and 
animal  impulse.  In  the  meantime  the  individual 
may  be  making  a  thorough  study  of  his  religion. 
He  may  even  have  achieved  a  reputation  as  a 
theologian.  The  history  of  rationalism  is  strewn 
with  wrecks  of  intellectual  pride.  These  men  illus- 
trate the  revolt  of  reason  against  religion. 

M.  Ernest  Renan  is  a  case  in  point.  A  simple 
Catholic  youth,  holding  as  articles  of  faith  all  the 
truths  taught  by  the  Catholic  Church,  he  enters  upon 
a  course  of  studies  for  the  Catholic  priesthood.  He 
prays  devoutly  with  his  companions  of  the  sem- 
inaries of  Issy  and  St.  Sulpice;  he  receives  the 
sacraments  with  them ;  he  follows  all  the  spiritual 
exercises  with  them ;  and  yet  a  day  comes  when  he 
finds  that  he  has  lost  the  faith  and  is  no  loqger  a 
believer  in  revealed  religion.  Whence  comes  this 
to  be  so?  The  truths  of  religion  are,  many  of  them, 
distinct  from  natural  truths ;  they  are  above  natural 
truths,  and  yet  they  are  based  upon  them.  Faith 
supposes  reason.  Now,  M.  Renan  has  left  us  an 
amusing  account  of  himself —  M.  Renan  is  amusing 
or  nothing — and  therein  we  learn  that  he  began  by 
sapping  the  natural  foundations  on  which  super- 
natural truth  rests ;  he  played  fast  and  loose  with 
philosophic  truth,  attempted  to  reconcile  the  most 
contradictory  assumptions  of  Kant  and  Hegel  and 
Schelling ;  he  repudiated  the  primary  principles  of 


78  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

his  reason,  and  so  undermined  its  whole  basis  that 
it  was  no  wonder  to  see  the  superstructure  topple 
over.  He,  a  boy  of  twenty,  with  very  little  strength 
of  intellect,  but  with  an  overweening  ambition 
that  supplied  all  other  deficiencies,  sat  in  judg- 
ment upon  all  things  in  heaven  and  upon  earth, 
especially  upon  the  religion  which  he  had  pro- 
fessed and  for  whose  ministry  he  was  preparing 
himself.  From  that  moment  the  Christian  religion 
ceased  to  be  for  him  an  active  principle.  He  no 
longer  believed  in  the  truths  of  Christianity. 
While  conforming  to  its  external  practices,  the 
warmth  and  the  life  of  it  had  vanished,  and  his 
active  brain,  having  nothing  else  to  feed  upon, 
made  of  his  religion  a  mere  intellectual  exercise, 
and  finally  a  marketable  commodity,  the  means  by 
which  to  create  unto  himself  a  name.  He  placed 
religious  truth  on  the  same  footing  with  natural 
science,  and  tested  both  by  the  same  methods. 
Naturally,  truths  that  are  deductive,  based  upon 
authority  beyond  the  scope  of  reason,  vanish  into 
thin  air  when  one  attempts  to  analyze  them  as 
one  would  the  ingredients  of  salt  and  water.  They 
are  effective  only  when  received  with  reverence, 
submission,  and  implicit  faith.  In  this  manner  did 
Renan's  faith  disappear  before  his  intellectual  pride. 

"  In  a  scientific  age,"  says  Cardinal  Newman, 
"  there  will  naturally  be  a  parade  of  what  is  called 
natural  theology,  a  widespread  profession  of  the 
Unitarian  creed,  an  impatience  of  mystery  and  a 
skepticism  about  miracles." ' 

*  "  Idea  of  a  University,"  p.  226. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  79 

Now,  if  this  intellectual  temper  is  to  be  looked 
for  under  the  most  favorable  auspices,  what  religious 
dearth  may  we  not  expect  to  find  among  young 
men  out  of  whom  all  theological  habits  of  thought 
have  been  starved,  and  in  whom  all  spiritual  life  has 
become  extinct  ?  The  school  from  which  religious 
dogma  and  religious  practices  have  been  banished 
is  cimply  preparing  a  generation  of  atheists  and 
agnostics.  There  is  a  large  grain  of  truth  in  the  re- 
mark of  Renan,  that  if  humanity  was  intelligent  and 
nothing  else  it  would  be  atheistic.  And  yet  this 
man,  whose  views  I  find  shadowy,  shifting,  pano- 
ramic and  unreal,  this  maker  of  clever  phrases, 
would  promote  nothing  but  intellectual  culture, 
soul  culture. 

"They  are,"  he  says,  "not  simple  ornaments, 
they  are  things  no  less  sacred  than  religion.  .  .  . 
Intellectual  culture  is  preeminently  holy.  ...  It 
is  our  religion."  * 

Renan  holds  this  culture  sacred,  because  he 
hopes  thereby  to  make  men  atheistic. 

No;  purely  intellectual  culture  will  not  take 
the  place  of  religion.  Where  men  abandon  them- 
selves to  the  exclusive  cultivation  of  the  intellect ; 
where  they  permit  pursuits  of  any  kind  to  mo- 
nopolize their  energies  to  the  neglect  of  the  spirit- 
ual side  of  their  natures,  they  are  doing  themselves 
an  injustice.  They  are  ignoring  their  supernatural 
destiny.  They  are  making  of  themselves  mere 
human  machines  for  the  performance  of  certain 
functions.     They  are  missing  the  completeness  of 

*  •'  La  R^forme,"  pp.  309,  310. 


80  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

life  for  which  they  were  created.  Youth  trained 
on  these  lines  are  putting  themselves  in  a  fair  way 
to  despise  that  which  they  have  systematically  neg- 
lected. Knowledge  is,  in  itself,  good ;  it  is  a  great 
power;  but  knowledge  is  not  all.  With  no  less 
truth  than  aptness  has  the  poet  sung: 

"  Make  knowledge  circle  with  the  winds; 
But  let  her  herald,  Reverence,  fly 
Before  her  to  whatever  sky- 
Bears  seed  of  men  and  growth  of  minds." 

But  knowledge  exclusively  cultivated  will  lack 
this  reverence.  Knowledge  is  only  too  prone  to 
puff  up  the  unballasted  mind.  It  supplies  food  for 
the  intellect,  gives  it  strength  and  development  and 
aptitude  upon  definite  lines.  But  the  intellect 
works  only  according  as  the  will  directs.  It  is  a 
pliant  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  will.  When  the 
will  is  good,  and  operates  towards  right  doing,  in- 
tellectual endowment  is,  indeed,  a  blessing;  when 
the  will  is  depraved,  a  trained  intellect  becomes  all 
the  more  mischievous.  Reason  enlightens  the  will 
and  enables  it  to  indicate  motives ;  but  religion 
alone  has  the  life-giving  power  that  nerves  and  fires 
the  whole  life-energies  of  man  for  good.  This  has 
been  the  way  of  humanity  in  the  past,  and  there  is 
no  reason  why  it  should  not  'be  so  in  the  future. 
Not,  then,  in  intellectual  culture  may  we  find  the 
proper  substitute  for  religious  training. 

Nor  yet  in  the  culture  of  the  aesthetic  sense. 
Love  of  art  in  all  its  chief  departments  ;  enthusiasm 
for  music  and  poetry  and  the  beautiful  in  life  and 
conduct  are  one  and  all  commendable.     That  the 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  81 

eye  and  the  ear  should  be  cultivated  to  their  high- 
est capacity,  and  that  a  sense  of  fitness  and  pro- 
priety should  preside  over  all  we  do  and  all  we  say, 
are  no  less  a  gain.  But  that  these  things  should  be 
everything,  that  they  should  be  the  sole  barriers 
erected  against  vice  and  crime,  the  sole  motives  of 
life,  the  sole  criterion  of  conduct  —  is  out  of  the 
question.  Sense  of  beauty  has  never  been  able  to 
stand  between  human  selfishness  and  the  gratifica- 
tion of  any  passion.  When  exclusively  cultivated, 
its  tendency  is  to  render  men  and  women  rather 
effeminate  and  weak  before  temptation.  In  no 
country  was  art  more  thoroughly  cultivated,  or  did 
art  enter  more  intimately  into  all  relations  of  life, 
than  it  did  in  Greece ;  but  at  no  time  in  the  history 
of  Greece  did  men  dream  of  substituting  art  culture 
for  religious  prayer  and  ceremonial. 

Art  is  not  an  end.  Every  form  of  art  is  the  ex- 
pression of  some  idea ;  every  idea  so  expressed  has 
grown  out  of  a  people's  life.  The  meaning  of  all 
art  worthy  of  the  name  consists  in  this,  that  it  is 
the  embodiment  of  the  thought  or  motive  that  is 
calculated  to  elevate  and  ennoble  one's  conception 
of  life,  or  action,  or  men,  or  things.  Art  is,  then,  a 
means  making  for  a  higher  purpose.  A  good  in  its 
own  way,  when  confined  to  its  proper  sphere,  it  is 
a  source  of  enjoyment  and  one  of  the  notes  of  civi- 
lization. But  art  in  its  highest  form  of  expression 
has  ever  received  its  sublimest  inspiration  from 
religion.  The  altar  is  the  cradle  at  which  music  and 
dance,  poetry  and  the  drama,  painting  and  sculpture 
and  architecture  have  been  nurtured  and  have  grown 
E.  M.— 6 


82  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

in  grace  and  beauty.  With  the  decline  of  religious 
influence  came  the  decline  of  each  and  all  of  these 
arts.  Beauty  cannot  supplant  virtue ;  it  cannot 
stand  on  the  same  footing  with  virtue.  Beauty 
is  a  natural  gift  pure  and  simple,  whereas  virtue  is 
based  upon  man's  free  will  and  grows  out  of  man's 
relations  with  his  Creator.  Make  the  sense  of 
beauty  the  ideal  of  life,  and  you  may  end  in  hold- 
ing with  Renan  "  that  beauty  is  so  superior,  talent, 
genius,  virtue  itself,  are  naught  in  its  presence  "  '  — 
a  proposition  bearing  on  the  face  of  it  its  own  refu- 
tation. Not  in  culture  of  the  aesthetic  sense  is  a 
substitute  for  religious  training  to  be  found. 

Neither  is  the  substitute  to  be  found  in  that 
purely  ethical  culture  which  has  in  these  days  been 
made  a  religion.  You  cannot  make  such  culture 
the  basis  of  virtue.  Is  it  virtue  to  recognize  in  a 
vague  manner  distinctions  between  right  and  wrong, 
or  to  know  what  is  proper  and  graceful  and  becom- 
ing in  conduct?  By  no  means.  As  we  have 
already  seen,  virtue  is  made  of  sterner  stuff.  The 
practice  of  virtue  is  based  upon  the  dictates  of 
conscience.  Conscience  has  sanction  in  its  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  of  a  Lawgiver  to  whom  every 
rational  being  is  responsible  for  his  acts.  What 
sanction  has  the  moral  sense  as'such  ?  None  beyond 
the  constitution  of  our  nature.  We  are  told  by  the 
apostles  of  ethical  culture  that  the  supreme  law  of 
our  being  is  to  live  out  ourselves  in  the  best  and 
highest  sense.  But  what  is  best  and  highest  ?  If 
we  consult  only  the  tendencies  of  our  poor,  feeble, 

**'  Souvenir  d'Enfance  et  de  Jeunesse,"  p.  115, 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  88 

erring  human  nature,  whither  will  they  lead  us? 
There  are  many  things  forbidden  by  the  laws  of 
Christian  morality  as  injurious  to  the  individual  and 
destructive  of  society,  that  are  looked  upon  as  good 
by  those  who  have  drifted  from  the  Christian  faith. 
You  may,  under  certain  favorable  circumstances, 
cultivate  in  the  child  a  sense  of  self-respect  that  will 
preserve  it  from  gross  breaches  of  morality,  but  you 
are  not  thereby  implanting  virtue  in  its  soul.  Now 
the  Christian  parent,  the  Christian  teacher,  and  the 
Christian  clergyman,  would  see  the  soul  of  every 
child  a  blooming  garden  abounding  in  every  Chris- 
tian virtue.  This  is  the  source  of  all  real  social  and 
personal  progress. 

There  is  no  true  moral  improvement  based  upon 
purely  ethical  culture.  Theory  is  not  practice ; 
knowing  is  not  doing.  The  world  was  never  ren- 
ovated—  the  world  would  never  have  been  reno- 
vated —  by  the  ethical  codes  of  Marcus  Aurelius  and 
Epictetus.  The  morality  that  enters  into  men's 
convictions,  that  becomes  part  of  their  very  ex- 
istence, that  influences  their  lives  and  braces  them 
up  to  resist  or  forbear  from  wrongdoing  under  the 
most  trying  circumstances,  has  a  higher  source  than 
the  moral  teaching  that  would  make  the  beautiful 
in  conduct  the  sole  criterion  of  life.  Ethical  cul- 
ture may  veneer  the  surface,  but  it  cannot  pene- 
trate to  the  depths  of  the  human  heart.  It  may 
point  out  the  deformity  of  vice  and  the  beauty  of 
virtue;  it  may  teach  the  proper  and  the  becoming; 
it  may  create  a  sense  of  pride  and  honor  that  sus- 
tains the   soul    under   certain    forms   of   trial   and 


84  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

temptation ;  under  certain  circumstances  it  may  de- 
velop a  certain  manhood  and  womanhood  of  char- 
acter; with  a  certain  happy  combination  of  traits 
in  the  natural  disposition  of  the  soul,  it  may  lead 
to  the  practice  of  the  natural  virtues ;  but  this  is 
not  the  supernatural  life  of  the  Christian.  This 
is  not  the  ideal  life  laid  down  by  St.  Paul. 

The  ideal  of  secularism  considers  only  the 
pleasant  and  the  agreeable;  the  fair  and  the  proper 
are  the  secularists'  chief  objects  of  life.  Virtue,  from 
this  point  of  view,  is  to  be  pursued  as  a  matter  of 
good  taste,  vice  is  to  be  avoided  as  something  vul- 
gar and  ungentlemanlike.  It  is  accompanied  by  a 
serene  self-possession  that  aims  to  rise  above 
blundering,  a  cold  self-satisfaction  that  grows  out 
of  insensibility  of  conscience  and  a  complete  ab- 
sence of  the  idea  of  sin.  There  are  no  probings  of 
the  heart ;  there  are  no  self-accusings  ;  there  is  no 
sense  of  sin ;  there  is  no  humility ;  there  is  no  spirit 
of  faith,  no  solicitude  for  a  future  life.  What  has 
secularism  in  any  of  its  phases  to  do  with  the  saving 
of  souls  or  the  fear  of  hell,  or  the  doctrines  of 
original  sin,  grace  and  redemption,  or  the  theological 
virtues  of  faith,  hope  and  charity,  or  with  spiritual 
life,  or  the  reign  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  human 
hearts?  This  is  a  world  ignored  or  denied  alto- 
gether by  secularism.  It  has  no  place  for  the  lesson 
that  the  cross  comes  before  the  crown,  that  men 
must  sorrow  before  they  can  rejoice,  that  pain  is 
frequently  to  be  chosen  before  pleasure,  that  the 
flesh  and  the  spirit  are  to  be  mortified,  that  passions 
are  to  be  resisted  and  man  must  struggle  against 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  85 

his  inferior  nature  to  the  death.  Now  this  doctrine 
is  to-day  as  hard  a  doctrine  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
St.  Paul,  when  men  pronounced  it  a  stumbling, 
block  and  foolishness. 

The  Christian  parent  and  the  Christian  Church 
arc  convinced  that  it  is  only  by  placing  the  Chris- 
tian yoke  upon  the  child  in  its  tender  years  that 
the  child  will  afterwards  grow  up  to  manhood  or 
womanhood  finding  that  yoke  agreeable  —  for  the 
Divine  Founder  of  Christianity  has  assured  us  that 
His  yoke  is  sweet  and  His  burden  light  —  and  will 
afterwards  persevere  in  holding  all  these  spiritual 
truths  and  practices  that  make  the  Christian  home 
and  the  Christian  life  a  heaven  upon  earth.  This 
is  why  Christian  parents  make  so  many  sacrifices 
to  secure  their  children  a  Christian  education. 
This  is  why  you  find,  the  world  over,  men  and 
women  —  religious  teachers  —  immolating  their  lives, 
their  comforts,  their  homes,  their  talents,  their 
energies,  that  they  may  cause  Christian  virtues 
to  blossom  in  the  hearts  of  the  little  ones 
confided  to  them.  This  is  why,  in  the  city  of 
New  York  alone,  we  are  witnesses,  this  very 
year,  of  not  less  than  fifty-two  thousand  Catholic 
children,  and  in  the  whole  State  not  less  than  one 
hundred  and  forty  thousand,  attending  our  parish 
schools  at  great  sacrifices  for  pastors  and  parents 
and  teachers.  The  Church  will  always  render  to 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  but  she  will  con- 
tinue to  guard  and  protect  and  defend  her  own  rights 
and  prerogatives  in  the  matter  of  education.  She 
cannot   for   a   single   moment   lose   sight    of    the 


86  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

supernatural  destiny  of  man  and  of  her  mission  to 
guide  him  from  the  age  of  reason  toward  the 
attainment  of  that  destiny. 

We  know  not  how  forcibly  we  have  presented 
the  plea  for  church  schools ;  but  we  do  know  that 
we  have  sought  to  give  not  mere  individual  impres- 
sions, but  the  profound  convictions  with  which 
Christian  parents  act  when  insisting  upon  giving 
their  children  a  Christian  education.  Therefore, 
sincere  Christians,  whether  Catholic,  Lutheran, 
Baptist  or  Episcopalian,  be  they  named  what  they 
may,  can  never  bring  themselves  to  look  on  with 
unconcern  at  any  system  of  education  that  is  calcu- 
lated to  rob  their  children  of  the  priceless  boon  of 
their  Christian  inheritance.  Prizing  their  souls 
more  than  their  bodies,  they  would  rather  see  them 
dead  than  that  their  souls  should  be  pinched  and 
starved  for  want  of  the  life-giving  food  that  comes 
of  Christian  revelation  and  a  Christian  church. 
Therefore  it  is  that  they  cannot  for  a  moment  tol- 
erate their  children  in  an  atmosphere  of  secularism 
from  which  Christian  prayer  and  Christian  prac- 
tices have  been  banished.  Some  friends  and  ad- 
mirers of  Heraclitus,  coming  to  see  him,  found  him 
in  the  kitchen  warming  himself  at  the  fire.  He 
bade  them  enter,  "  for,"  he  added,  "  God  is  also 
present  in  this  place." '  A  noble  thought,  this  of 
the  pagan  philosopher,  that  the  presence  of  God 
dignifies  the  lowliest  place.  Even  so  thinks  the 
Church.  She  holds  that  the  presence  of  God,  and 
the  revelation  of  God,  and  devotion  to  God,  during 

'  Aristotle,  "  De  Partibus  Animalium,"  lib.  I.,  cap.  v.,  $  5. 


RELIGION  IN  EDUCATION.  87 

school  hours,  dignify  and  ennoble  the  studies  and 
the  very  nature  of  the  child.  And  every  Christian 
parent  is  content  to  know  that  the  schoolroom  in 
which  his  child  abides  is  sanctified  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  our  Savior  and  Redeemer  lighting 
up  the  knowledge  that  child  is  acquiring  and  nour- 
ishing his  heart  with  beautiful  Christian  sentiments 
—  the  sense  of  God's  presence  within  him  and 
about  him,  and  the  voice  of  God  speaking  to  his 
conscience,  and  thrilling  his  soul  unto  a  music  with 
which  his  whole  life  shall  beat  in  unison. 


THE  SONNETS  ANB  PLAYS  GF 
SHAKESPEARE 


«» 


THE    SONNETS    AND    PLAYS    OF 

SHAKESPEARE. 

I. 

tALLAM  regrets  that  Shakespeare's  sonnets  had 
ever  been  written.  It  is  true  that  some  of 
them  do  not  form  edifying  reading,  and  if  we  are  to 
take  them  as  a  personal  record,  as  a  revelation  of  the 
man  himself,  he  was  not  so  wise  for  himself.  It  is 
true  that  the  sonnets  in  revealing  Shakespeare  as  a 
great  sinner,  also  show  him  in  the  act  of  struggling 
with  his  passions,  and  we  know  of  historical  evidence 
that  he  finally  overcame  those  passions  and  to  this 
extent  was  he  also  wise  for  himself. 

Some  critics  would  make  the  Shakespearean  son- 
nets wholly  impersonal  and  allegorical,  but  modem 
criticism,  in  its  present  stage,  is  disposed  to  regard 
them  as  revelations.  They  are  primarily  a  history 
of  his  own  struggle  and  reveal  to  us  his  wrest- 
lings with  an  evil  passion  that  held  him  enthralled 
until  he  finally  burst  the  bonds.  Still,  I  think  it 
possible  to  read  more  than  a  personal  history  into 
these  sonnets  when  we  understand  their  proper 
character  and  meaning,  and  first,  I  would  call  atten- 
tion to  the  construction  of  the  sonnets.  Each  son- 
net is  not  a  thing  apart. 

Each  sonnet  is  to  a  certain  number  of  the  son- 
nets what  a  Spenserian  stanza  is  to  a  whole  canto 

(91) 


92  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

in  the  "  Fairie  Queene. "  We  may  therefore  divide 
up  the  sonnets  of  Shakespeare  into  a  certain  num- 
ber of  series,  and  first,  we  will  make  two  great  divi- 
sions of  the  sonnets.  The  first  division  includes  the 
first  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  sonnets.  The  sec- 
ond division  includes  the  remaining  twenty-eight. 
The  first  division  is  mainly  occupied  with  a  young 
man,  the  second  is  chiefly  concerned  with  a  lady. 
The  first  series  are  addressed  to  Lord  Pembroke,  a 
youthful  friend  of  eighteen.  They  run  in  cycles  of 
sonnet  poems.  The  first  cycle  includes  the  first 
twenty-seven  sonnets,  and  is  mainly  devoted  to  urg- 
ing the  young  man  to  marry.  This  has  been  an 
enigma  to  critics,  but  in  1884  certain  letters  were 
discovered  in  the  record  office  of  London  which 
show  that  at  the  very  time  of  the  writing  of  these 
sonnets,  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Pembroke  were 
negotiating  a  marriage  with  their  son  and  Bridget 
de  Vere,  granddaughter  of  the  great  Lord  Bur- 
leigh, and  these  sonnets  were  written  to  encourage 
the  young  man  to  enter  into  the  design  of  his 
parents. 

Again,  scanning  the  sonnets,  we  find  that  they 
reflect  the  spirit  and  the  movements  of  the  times 
almost  in  the  very  language  of  the  times.  Here  is 
an  instance  in  point. 

The  rebellion  of  Essex  failed  in  February,  1601. 
Writing  prior  to  the  event.  Lord  Bacon  alluded  to 
"The  devices  of  some  that  would  put  out  your 
majesty's  lights. "  One  week  after  the  event  Cecil 
wrote,  "As  the  decline  of  the  sun  brings  general  dark- 
ness, so  her  majesty's  hurt  is  our  continual  night. " 


SHAKESPEARE.  93 

Now  here  is  how  Shakespeare  in  one  of  his  sonnets 
alludes  to  the  event : 

••  The  mortal  moon  hath  her  eclipse  endured, 

And  the  sad  augurs  mark  their  own  presage; 
Incertainties  now  crown  themselves  assured, 
And  peace  proclaims  olives  of  endless  age. "  ^ 

Now  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  the  conven- 
tional poetry  of  the  day,  Queen  Elizabeth  was  called 
Cynthia  or  the  moon.  In  the  lines  just  quoted,  the 
rebellion  is  named  the  eclipse,  and  thus  it  is  that 
Shakespeare  has  in  his  own  way  expressed  what  the 
statesmen  of  the  day  expressed  in  their  way. 

There  has  been  much  conjecture  regarding  the 
dark  lady  of  the  last  division  of  the  sonnets. 
Recent  research  has  placed  it  beyond  doubt  that  the 
lady  alluded  to  is  Mary  Fitton,  maid  of  honor  to 
Queen  Elizabeth. 

But  if  Shakespeare  had  no  other  purpose  than  to 
speak  of  his  friendship  for  a  youth  or  for  his  in- 
trigues with  a  lady,  his  sonnets  would  scarcely  have 
ever  seen  the  light.  It  was  customary  in  his  day  to 
write  sonnets  dealing  with  affairs  of  love  and  to  give 
these  sonnets  an  allegorical  meaning,  and  so  the 
poet  after  the  fashion  of  his  time,  and  indeed  of  all 
mediaeval  love  poetry,  gave  another  and  a  deeper 
meaning  to  these  sonnets.  We  know  how  Dante 
before  him  revealed  to  us  the  very  process  by  which 
he  allegorized  his  love  poems.  We  also  know  that 
the  love  sonnets  of  Petrarcha  will  bear  a  spiritual 
interpretation. 

Now,  the  love  of  Shakespeare  is  certainly  of 
earth,  earthly,  but  in  his  day  nearly  everything  in 

■  Sonnet  107. 


94  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

sonnet  form  was  expressive  of  Platonic  love,  Platonic 
sentiment  and  Platonic  allegory.  Shakespeare 
caught  up  his  spirit  and  it  may  safely  be  asserted 
that  he  never  would  have  given  his  sonnets  to  the 
world  were  they  not  capable  of  a  philosophical 
meaning,  which  redeems  their  occasional  grossness. 
"Shakespeare,"  says  Richard  Simpson,  "is  al- 
ways a  philosopher  but  in  his  sonnets  he  is  a 
philosopher  of  love."  The  key  to  this  higher  sense 
is  to  be  found  in  the  following  lines  taken  from  the 
one  hundred  and  forty-fourth  sonnet : 

**  Two  loves  I  have  of  comfort  and  despair, 

Which  like  two  spirits  do  suggest  me  still; 
The  better  angel  is  a  man  right  fair, 

The  worser  spirit,  a  woman  colored  ill." 

The  latter  series  of  the  sonnets  depicts  the  course 
of  vulgar  love  through  its  various  moods  of  degrada- 
tion and  despair.  The  earlier  series  expresses  the 
love  of  friendship  and  of  intellectual  beauty.  The 
whole  represents  the  struggle  between  the  spiritual 
and  the  carnal  man.  St.  Augustine  also  found  in 
this  world  but  two  loves.  "  There  are  in  this  world," 
he  says,  "  but  two  loves.  The  love  of  God  extend- 
ing to  the  contempt  of  self,  and  the  love  of  self 
extending  to  the  contempt  of  God."  But,  unlike 
Augustine,  Shakespeare  does  hot  lead  the  record  of 
his  struggle  up  to  a  magnificent  canticle  to  God, 
he  does  not  raise  himself  up  from  the  beauty  that  is 
finite  and  fleeting  to  the  beauty  that  is  ever  ancient 
and  ever  new.  Unlike  Dante  and  Petrarcha,  he 
does  not  end  his  sonnet-cycles  with  praises  of  the 
love  of  God  and  the  glories  of  Mary  through  whom 


SHAKESPEARE.  95 

all  womanly  love  is  purified  —  in  the  words  of  Goethe, 
"  The  eternal  Woman  that  leadeth  us  up." 

Shakespeare  is  content  with  declaring  that  naught 
can  cool  the  ardors  of  love.  The  first  part  of 
Shakespeare's  sonnets  may  be  compared  to  Tenny- 
son's "  In  Memoriam."  Both  deal  with  friendship, 
both  sing  the  love  of  man  for  man.  Shakespeare 
sings  friendship  for  the  living,  Tennyson  sings  friend- 
ship for  the  dead.  Tennyson,  like  Shakespeare, 
while  apparently  dealing  with  personal  impressions 
and  personal  experiences,  rises  to  a  meaning  that  is 
of  universal  application. 

The  love  with  which  Arthur  Hallam  inspires 
Tennyson,  is  like  the  loves  inspired  by  Beatrice  and 
Laura,  chastening  and  ennobling.  We  must  confess 
that  in  this  respect  Shakespeare  does  not  rise  to  the 
height  of  Tennyson,  or  Dante,  or  Petrarcha,  or  even 
of  his  friend  and  admirer,  Edmund  Spenser.  With 
these  remarks,  we  will  leave  the  sonnets  of  Shakes- 
peare. 

Turn  we  now  to  the  nature  and  character  of 
Shakespeare's  genius. 

character  of  Sliakes];>eare's  Genius. 

Whole  libraries  of  books  have  been  written  about 
that  genius.  Men  and  women  have  viewed  it  from 
various  standpoints,  but,  after  all  has  been  said,  we 
cannot  yet  conclude  that  men  have  found  the  full 
measure  of  that  genius.  There  are  other  subjects 
about  which  one  may  easily  exaggerate  ;  the  subject 
of  Shakespeare's  genius  is  beyond  all  power  of  ex- 
aggeration. The  greatest  and  the  brightest  and  the 
best  things  that  one  may  say  concerning  it  still  fall 


96  ESSATS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

short  of  the  reality.  This  is  high  praise  but  it  is  well 
merited.  The  more  we  consider  the  subject,  the 
more  inadequate  do  we  find  words  to  express  its  full 
meaning  and  bearing  and  the  whole  extent  of  its 
greatness. 

I. 

Consider  the  healthfulness  of  Shakespeare's  gen- 
ius. It  is  the  healthfulness  of  Homer  and  Chaucer, 
it  is  the  healthfulness  of  open  air  and  sunshine  and 
all  that  is  bright  and  beautiful  in  nature.  Therefore  it 
is  that  Shakespeare  brought  to  London  all  the  love 
of  nature  that  he  had  imbibed  in  his  boyhood  days 
when  roaming  over  the  fields  and  through  the  woods 
of  Stratford-on-Avon.  This  love  for  nature  caused 
him  to  weave  into  all  his  poems  and  plays  reminis- 
cences of  the  beautiful  country  in  which  he  had 
lived.  "  Shakespeare's  love  for  the  country,"  says 
Furnivall,  "is  one  of  his  most  striking  characteris- 
tics." His  knowledge  of,  and  the  delight  in,  its 
flowers  and  plants,  its  birds  and  beasts,  horses  and 
dogs,  its  clouds  and  sunshine,  its  pastoral  life  and 
fairy  love,  its  sports,  its  men  and  maidens,  he  puts 
into  all  his  plays. 

Again,  consider  the  healthfulness  of  his  genius  in 
its  moral  aspect.  If  he  deals  with  morbid  subjects, 
if  he  causes  fierce  tragedy  to  "rage,  he  can  also  play 
with  lighter  subjects  and  he  is  no  less  great  in  the 
writing  of  comedy  than  in  the  creation  of  tragedy. 
If  he  can  move  to  tears,  he  is  no  less  capable  of  mov- 
ing to  laughter.  If  he  deals  with  what  is  dark  and 
dismal  in  life,  sometimes  in  the  same  play,  some- 
times near  the  deepest   tone  of  the  tragedy,  he 


SHA  KESPEA  RE.  97 

indulges  in  a  play  of  words  and  overflows  with  mirth 
and  humor.  His  is  a  thoroughly  balanced  genius. 
It  is  the  genius  that  understands  human  life  in  its 
lighter  and  in  its  deeper  aspects. 

II. 

Consider  the  thoughtfulness  of  his  genius.  By 
reason  of  that  thoughtfulness,  one  can  always  find  a 
deeper  meaning  back  of  the  most  commonplace  ex- 
pression. By  reason  of  that  thoughtfulness,  he  rises 
above  and  beyond  the  mere  impersonations  of 
the  men  and  women  of  the  play  into  a  sphere  of  re- 
search and  questioning  and  reveals  an  ideal  beyond 
the  realities  he  would  depict. 

"  The  presence,"  says  Spedding,  **  of  a  spirit  of 
active  and  inquiring  thought  through  every  page  of 
his  writings,  is  too  evident  to  require  any  proof. 
He  has  impressed  no  other  of  his  mental  qualities 
on  all  his  characters.  This  character  colors  every 
one  of  them." 

Take  the  very  first  play  that  he  wrote,  his 
"  Love's  Labor's  Lost."  Apparently,  it  is  a  play  of 
cross  purposes,  a  pleasant  piece  of  foolery,  but  it  is 
none  the  less  the  most  thoughtful  contribution  to 
the  solution  of  women's  sphere  in  this  world.  This 
play  attempts  to  solve  in  the  sixteenth  century  what 
Tennyson's  beautiful  poem,  "  The  Princess,"  would 
solve  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  therefore  it  is 
that,  no  matter  how  that  play  is  presented,  whether 
on  the  bare  and  unattractive  boards  as  Shakespeare 
himself  had  it  presented  or  whether  with  all  the 
gorgeous  scenery  of  our  modern  stages,  there  still 
remains  beyond  the  mere  scenery,  beyond  the  actors 
E.  M.— 7 


98  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

who  speak  the  words,  an  ideal  world  of  thought  and 
inquiry  and  life.  Again,  as  another  illustration  of 
this  thoughtfulness,  let  us  take  that  play  that  em- 
bodies more  philosophy  than  any  other  of  Shakes- 
peare's, let  us  look  at  "  Hamlet "  for  a  moment. 
Here,  the  poet  takes  the  story  of  Saxo  Grammati- 
cus,  an  old  Danish  chronicler  and  a  priest,  a  story 
filled  with  great  improbabilities,  and  he  reconstructs 
it  and  breathes  into  the  dry  bones  of  this  old  narra- 
tive, spirit  and  life,  and  clothes  its  personalities  with 
flesh  and  blood  and  gives  the  world  the  noblest 
soul  study,  the  most  peerless  impersonation  of 
thought  ever  conceived  by  human  brain.  The  ram- 
bling story  of  the  Danish  monk  becomes  the  master- 
piece of  "  Hamlet." 

HI. 

Consider  the  dramatic  power  of  Shakespeare's 
genius.  It  matters  not  what  material  he  would  lay 
hands  upon  even  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of 
"  Hamlet."  He  wrought  upon  it  and  gave  it  a  living 
spirit  and  forthwith  it  became  a  thing  of  life  stand- 
ing apart,  an  ideal  for  all  time.  Not  that  Shakes- 
peare was  always  perfect  as  a  dramatic  artist ;  he  had 
many  shortcomings,  he  had  the  artistic  failings  of 
his  age,  but  his  failings,  his  imperfections,  are  those  of 
his  age.  His  grasp  of  expression,  his  power  of  thought, 
his  perfect  mastery  of  words — these  belong  to  Shake- 
speare. They  are  part  of  his  genius,  and  in  these 
and  in  many  other  respects  he  rose  above  his  age. 

IV. 
Consider    his    power    of  characterization.     His 
power  is  as  extensive  as  human  life  itself.    Indeed, 


SHAKESPEARE.  99 

there  is  no  form  of  human  life  that  the  poet  has  not 
represented.  High  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  men  and 
women,  persons  shapely  and  persons  deformed, 
persons  vicious  and  persons  virtuous,  and  in  the 
mouth  of  each  he  has  placed  the  appropriate  word 
that  characterizes  him  for  all  time.  Men  in  whom 
thought  interferes  with  action,  as  "  Hamlet;"  men 
whose  ambition  overleaps  its  limits  and  leads  them 
into  great  crimes,  as  "  Macbeth;"  hardened  villains  like 
"  lago  "  and  "  Edmund;"  unsexed  women  like  "  Lady 
Macbeth,"  "  Goneril,"  and  "  Regan;"  and  then  ideal 
men  full  of  promise  and  hope  like  "  Romeo,"  great 
like  *'  Brutus;"  ideal  women,  beautiful  and  admirable 
in  every  respect  who  stand  out  in  the  pages  of  lit- 
erature the  impersonation  of  all  that  is  lovely  in 
womanhood  like  "  Isabella "  and  "  Rosaline"  and 
"  Portia  "  and  "  Cymbeline  "  and  "  Juliet." 

Youth  and  old  age,  men  hating  and  men  loving, 
characters  in  every  position  of  life,  characters  repre- 
senting every  mood  of  life  —  they  are  all  to  be  found 
within  the  pages  of  Shakespeare.  There  is  no  phase 
of  character  that  remains  unrepresented,  there  is  no 
mood  of  the  soul  that  is  not  expressed,  there  is  no 
degree  of  passion  that  is  not  put  into  fitting  words. 
The  plays  of  Shakespeare  constitute  the  whole  world 
in  miniature.  They  draw  from  human  nature  their 
very  soul  and  essence.  His  characters  are  rounded, 
—  complete. 

Note  especially  the  appropriateness  of  his  lan- 
guage. The  words  he  places  in  the  mouths  of 
the  grave  diggers  are  far  different  from  the  words 
he  places  in  the  mouth  of  the  courtier,  "  Polonius." 


100  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Even  the  character  of  "  Caliban  "  has  a  language 
all  its  own.  Critics  are  wont  to  find  fault  with 
this  expression  or  with  that  in  the  language  of 
Shakespeare,  but  it  will  be  found  that  the  language  he 
uses  is  invariably  suited  to  the  character  in  whose 
mouth  he  places  it.  If  the  character  is  low  or  vul- 
gar, it  is  made  to  speak  in  terms  in  keeping  with  its 
want  of  education.  If  the  character  is  stately, 
courteous,  the  language  is  found  to  rise  in  stateliness 
and  courteousness.  If  the  character  is  a  noble  char- 
acter, speaking  out  of  the  fullness  of  a  noble  heart, 
then  does  the  language  of  Shakespeare  rise  to  its 
highest  pitch  of  perfection. 

V. 

Consider  the  religious  bearing  of  his  genius. 
Religion  is  the  very  essence  of  Shakespeare's 
thought.  It  permeates  that  thought  as  the  air  or 
ether  permeates  things  in  this  world.  Books  have 
been  written  going  to  show  how  intimately  Shakes- 
peare knew  his  Bible  and  how  beautifully  and  aptly 
he  applied  its  grandest  ideas  and  sometimes  its  very 
expressions.  God,  conscience,  sense  of  responsi- 
bility—  these  are  all  the  pride  in  the  characters  that 
Shakespeare  has  created.  Even  his  villainous  char- 
acters know  that  they  are  doing  wrong  and  the  wrong- 
doing recoils  on  their  heads.  Religion,  we  are  told, 
is  a  fundamental  habitude  of  his  mind,  and  religion, 
as  one  of  the  great  facts  of  the  world,  is  more  defi- 
nitely apprehended  by  him  than  either  by  Goethe  or 
George  Eliot.  Shakespeare  never  loses  sight  of 
the  sense  of  right  and  wrong.     The  evildoers  in  his 


SHAKESPEARE.  101 

plays  are  wrong  and  know  they  are  wrong  and  gen- 
erally suffer  the  penalty  of  their  evildoing.  He  is 
equally  careful  throughout  his  plays  to  represent 
virtue  amid  trial  and  temptation  and  suffering,  find- 
ing in  the  approval  of  its  conscience  its  highest  and 
noblest  reward. 

The  Growth  of  Shakespeare's  OenloB. 

It  is  a  mistaken  notion  to  think  that  Shakes- 
peare's mind  did  not  pass  through  various  stages 
of  growth  and  development.  His  mind  was  subject 
to  the  same  laws  as  the  mind  of  every  human  being. 
It  had  its  period  of  immaturity  when  the  poet  was  ex- 
ercising, so  to  speak,  his  "  prentice  hand  "  and  acquir- 
ing that  artistic  deftness  for  which  he  became  noted 
in  his  more  mature  productions.  Modem  critics 
have  sought  to  divide  the  period  of  Shakespeare's 
literary  career  into  four  distinct  parts,  each  having 
some  characteristic  that  distinguishes  it  from  the 
others.  Let  us  follow  them  in  this  respect.  It  will 
help  to  bring  Shakespeare  a  little  nearer.  It  will 
prepare  us  to  read  his  writing  with  greater  profit. 

I. 

And  first  let  us  consider  the  first  period  of  his 
literary  life.  It  is  the  springtime  when  he  was  at 
the  same  time  laying  the  foundations  for  greater 
efforts  and  giving  evidence  of  his  superior  genius. 
His  first  period  extends  from  the  year  1588  to  the 
year  of  1 594. 

The  plays  of  this  period  are :  "  Love's  Labor's 
Lost"  (1588),  "Comedy  of  Errors"  (1589),  "Mid- 
summer      Night's    Dream"    (1590),     "The    Two 


102  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Gentlemen  of  Verona"  (1591),  "Romeo  and  Juliet" 
(1592),  the  poem  of  "Venus  and  Adonis"  (1593), 
the  poem  of  "Lucrece"  (1594),  and  during  this 
period  it  was  that  he  wrote  the  following  historical 
plays:  "Richard  II."  (1593),  the  three  parts  of 
"  Henry  VI.  "  (1593-94),  and  "  Richard  III.  "  (1594). 
This  period  is  distinguished  by  certain  character- 
istics, some  of  which  are  mechanical  and  belong  to 
the  style  of  composition,  others  are  intellectual  and 
express  peculiar  traits  in  the  plays.  Of  the  mechan- 
ical traits,  we  may  mention  the  following:  first, 
rhymes  abound  in  the  early  plays.  As  the  poet 
advances  in  years,  he  drops  the  use  of  rhyme,  and 
so  we  find  in  his  first  authentic  play,  "  Love's 
Labor's  Lost, "  one  thousand  and  twenty-eight 
rhymes,  whereas,  in  his  "  Winter's  Tale,  "  which  was 
written  in  161 1,  there  is  not  a  single  rhyme.  An- 
other mechanical  characteristic  of  the  verse  is  that 
in  his  early  plays  there  is  a  more  regular  structure 
of  line.  The  poet  is  more  careful  to  have  the  exact 
number  of  syllables,  whereas,  in  the  later  plays,  his 
lines  are  more  irregular.  The  third  characteristic  is 
that  in  his  early  plays  the  large  majority  of  his  lines 
have  pauses  at  the  end,  whereas,  in  his  later  plays 
the  lines  run  into  each  other  without  pause.  In 
"  Love's  Labor's  Lost, "  for  instance,  only  one  in 
18.14  lines  is  without  pause,  whereas,  in  "Winters* 
Tale,"  every  line  out  of  2.12  lines,  is  without  pause. 
Another  characteristic  of  the  early  plays  is  the  fre- 
quency of  puns  and  conceits.  These  things  were  in 
the  air  in  Shakespeare's  day  and  he  at  first  followed 
the  fashion  in  using  them  in  abundance.     But,  as  bis 


SHA  KESPEA  RE.  103 

mind  grew  more  mature,  and  as  he  attained  greater 
mastery  over  his  art,  he  found  other  and  better 
things  than  the  mere  play  upon  words  to  adorn  his 
pages.  Again,  in  the  early  plays  we  find  the  wit  and 
imagery  drawn  out  to  a  length  that  fatigues.  Also, 
as  a  rule,  the  early  plays  are  furnished  with  a  clown 
whose  presence  constitutes  no  essential  portion  of 
the  play.  Furthermore,  in  nearly  all  the  early  plays 
we  find  a  scolding  or  shrewish  woman.  In  his  more 
mature  works,  the  characters  are  more  natural,  play 
their  parts  with  greater  ease,  and  the  poet's  fertile 
mind  was  able  to  do  without  the  mere  stock  in  trade 
of  the  stage  plays  of  his  day,  but  we  must  not 
underestimate  the  earlier  productions.  Even  when 
the  poet  copies,  he  improves. 

Swinburne  has  well  said  in  allusion  to  some  of 
these  early  efforts : 

"What  is  due  to  Shakespeare  and  to  him  alone 
is  the  honor  of  having  embroidered  on  the  naked  old 
canvas  of  comic  action  those  flowers  of  elegiac  beauty 
which  vivified  and  diversified  the  scenes  of  Plautusas 
reproduced  by  the  art  of  Shakespeare." 

In  this  light  and  lovely  work  of  the  youth  of 
Shakespeare  we  find  for  the  first  time  that  sweet 
admixture  of  farce  with  fancy,  of  lyric  charm  with 
comic  effect,  which  recurs  so  often  in  his  later  work 
from  the  date  of  "  As  You  Like  It, "  to  the  date  of 
"  Winter's  Tale. " 

Again,  when  we  consider  the  power,  the  grasp, 
with  which  "Richard  III."  is  treated,  we  must  in- 
deed marvel  at  the  giant  force  of  this  young  dramatic 
Hercules.  "Richard  III."  is  a  man  without  a  con- 
science, with  all  the  odds  of  life  against  him.     He 


104  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

spares  nothing  that  comes  in  the  way  of  his  ambi- 
tious designs.  He  recognizes  no  bond  of  life  as  too 
sacred  to  withold  his  sacrilegious  hand.  He  mur- 
ders, he  cheats,  he  lies,  he  deceives,  he  plays  a  hypo- 
crite, he  stoops  to  the  vilest  means  to  attain  his 
purpose,  and  when,  in  the  high-time  of  all  his  crimes, 
he  seems  upon  the  verge  of  grasping  the  end  of  all 
his  ambitions,  his  crimes  turn  upon  him  and  over- 
whelm, bear  him  away  from  the  object  of  his  ambi- 
tion. All  this  is  told  in  the  play  with  consum- 
mate art. 

II. 

We  come  to  the  second  period  of  Shakespeare's 
literary  life.  This  period  dates  from  1596  to  1 60 1.  It 
is  the  period  of  artistic  maturity.  There  is  more 
mechanical  freedom  in  the  structure  of  his  sentences. 
Every  touch  of  his  pen  reveals  the  master  hand.  The 
first  play  of  this  period  is  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice, " 
written  in  1 596.  I  will  not  dwell  upon  the  beauties 
and  the  almost  perfect  language  that  abound  in  that 
play.  In  the  next  year,  1597,  we  find  the  poet  tak- 
ing up  an  old  play  and  retouching  it,  cutting  out 
here,  adding  there,  rewriting  some  passages,  insert- 
ing one  or  two  additional  characters  and  pro- 
ducing the  play  now  known  as  "Taming  of  the 
Shrew. " 

During  this  period  the  poet's  sense  of  humor 
asserts  itself  in  that  masterpiece,  the  impersonation 
of  all  the  roguery  and  folly  of  the  day :  the  char- 
acter of  Sir  John  Falstaff.  This  character  runs 
through  the  first  and  second  part  of  "  Henry  IV., " 
and  also  through  the  "  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor.  " 


SHAKESPEARE.  105 

Tradition  has  it  that  Queen  Elizabeth  having 
witnessed  the  play  of  "Henry  IV.  "  made  a  special 
request  that  the  play  be  written  representing  "Fal- 
staff "  in  love,  and  the  story  goes  that  within  two 
weeks  Shakespeare  prepared  "  Merry  Wives  of 
Windsor, "  but  in  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  love  is  a 
holy  rxid  a  sacred  thing,  and  he  could  not  represent 
the  sensual,  drinking,  vile-mouthed  old  soldier,  as  in 
love.  The  man  was  too  hardened  to  love  anybody 
but  himself,  and  so  Shakespeare  was  content  to  show 
the  virtue  of  the  wives  of  Windsor  at  the  expense  and 
humiliation  of  the  rascally  behavior  of  Falstaff.  To 
this  period  also  belongs  the  play  of  "  Henry  V., " 
written  in  1599. 

During  the  second  period  Shakespeare  wrote  of 
love  in  its  lighter  mood  and  gave  us  the  flashing 
dialogue  of  "Much  Ado  about  Nothing"  (1599- 
1600).  "As  You  Like  It,"  written  about  1600, 
transports  the  reader  to  a  far-off  world  where  the 
time  fleets  carelessly.  The  bright  and  pleasant  char- 
acter of  "  Rosalind "  is  the  central  figure  of  the 
play,  but  here  for  the  first  time  enters  a  new  note. 
It  is  a  note  of  sadness  which  is  the  result  of  expe- 
rience. This  note  is  struck  by  the  melancholy 
"  Jacques,  "  but  again  the  poet  recovers  himself  and 
"  Twelfth  Night, "  written  the  year  following,  is  a 
play  of  brightness  and  happiness  without  a  single 
note  of  sadness,  but  the  next  play,  written  1601- 
1602,  "  All  's  Well  That  Ends  Well,  "  has  a  visible 
note  of  sadness  running  through  it,  and  this  sad  note 
also  runs  into  the  sonnets,  many  of  which  were  writ- 
ten during  this  ^cond  period. 


106  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

III. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  third  period  or  the 
third  stage  of  Shakespeare's  literary  development, 
and  we  find  it  a  period  shrouded  in  sorrow  and  dark- 
ness. It  would  seem  as  though  some  great  catas- 
trophe had  for  a  while  enveloped  Shakespeare  and 
revolutionized  his  whole  nature  and  shut  out  the 
sunshine  of  life  and  revealed  to  him  nothing  but  the 
deepest  depths  of  human  passion  and  human  woe 
and  human  misery  and  human  crime.  This  period 
extends  from  1601  to  1608,  and  yet  we  find  that  at 
this  very  period  Shakespeare  was  a  prosperous  man 
who  had  already  attained  a  position  in  the  literary 
and  social  world.  He  had  renovated  the  fallen  for- 
tunes of  his  father,  he  had  purchased  extensive 
property  in  his  native  town,  he  was  honored  by  the 
leading  wits  and  courtiers  of  London,  but,  in  1601, 
as  we  already  found,  when  speaking  of  the  sonnets, 
was  the  rebellion  of  Essex,  and  Essex  was  the  friend 
of  Shakespeare,  and  this  rebellion  scattered  many  of 
Shakespeare's  friends. 

Essex  perished  on  the  scaffold,  Southampton  was 
sent  to  the  Tower,  Pembroke  was  banished  from 
court.  Some  think  that  Shakespeare  may  have  been 
involved  in  the  rebellion  of  Essex,  but  we  think  not. 
Indeed,  a  sonnet  that  we  have  already  quoted  speak- 
ing of  the  atmosphere  being  again  clear,  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  Shakespeare  stood  without  the  po- 
litical intrigues  of  that  day.  The  play  of  "Julius 
Caesar"  was  written  in  the  eventful  year  of  1601.  It 
has  a  political  significance.  It  shows  how  ill-ad- 
vised rebellion  ends  in  the  defeat  and  destruction 


SHAKESPEARE.  107 

of  those  who  undertake  such,  no  matter  what  may 
be  their  personal  virtues.  "Brutus"  stands  forth 
among  Shakespeare's  noblest  creations  as  a  man, 
but  even  the  integrity  of  a  Brutus  cannot  justify 
a  rebellion  without  sufficient  cause.  This  play  is 
followed  by  the  great  tragedy  of  *'  Hamlet. " 

"  Hamlet,"  though  written  in  the  year  1602,  must 
have  been  such  a  life-study  with  Shakespeare  as 
"  Faust"  was  with  Goethe,  and  as  we  cannot  pos- 
sibly conceive  of  Goethe's  life  except  as  having  the 
great  work  of  "  Faust  "  entwined  therewith,  even  so 
Shakespeare,  without  the  play  of  "  Hamlet,"  would 
be  an  enigma.  For  years  must  the  poet  have  been 
brooding  over  the  materials  of  this  great  play.  For 
years  must  he  have  been  gathering  and  selecting  his 
best  thoughts  to  put  into  this  great  work,  and  now, 
when  desolation  and  ruin  seem  to  surround  him,  and 
his  personal  troubles  begin  to  crowd  upon  him,  was 
the  opportune  moment  to  write  this  philosophic 
study  of  life  which  we  call  the  play  of  "  Hamlet." 
For  the  author,  as  well  as  for  the  hero,  the  times 
were  out  of  joint  and  Shakespeare  threw  the  whole 
force  of  his  genius  into  one  great  effort  to  solve  the 
problem  of  life  and  the  mysterious  movements  of 
moral  action,  of  moral  force  and  moral  retribution. 

"  Hamlet "  is  a  dark,  dark  tragedy,  speaking  to 
us  of  murder  and  adultery  and  madness,  all  the  out- 
come of  a  lustful  passion  unchecked.  To  this  same 
period  belongs  the  tragic  comedy  of  "  Measure  for 
Measure,"  in  which  is  finely  represented  the  bare- 
ness of  trust  betrayed  and  plighted  troth  foresworn. 
Then     came    those    two     powerful    tragedies    of 


108  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

"  Othello  "  and  "  Macbeth,"  in  which  we  find  the 
heroes  of  both  trustful  and  well-meaning,  till  they 
listened  to  the  tempter's  voice,  and  then  we  behold 
them  rapidly  rushed  to  their  own  ruin,  the  victims 
of  evil  counselors.  These  are  followed  by  the  awful 
tragedy  of  "  Lear,"  wherein  the  wickedness  of  an 
old  man  draws  down  harrowing  miseries  upon  his 
own  head  and  upon  the  heads  of  those  around  him. 
Then  come  the  horrible,  sickening  tragedies  of 
"Troilusand  Cressida,"  the  most  revolting  play  in 
the  whole  group,  and  "  Anthony  and  Cleopatra,"  in 
both  of  which  the  terrible  effects  of  a  lustful  passion 
are  exposed  in  all  the  nakedness  and  all  the  horror 
of  reality.  Finally,  to  this  same  period  belong 
"  Coriolanus  "  and  "  Timon,"  in  which  ingratitude  is 
principally  represented.  All  these  plays  reflect  the 
dark  and  troublous  times  through  which  Shakespeare 
was  then  passing. 

IV. 

The  fourth  period  reveals  a  better  state  of  affairs. 
The  clouds  seem  to  have  passed.  The  poet  has  sur- 
vived the  slanders  and  the  ingratitudes  of  men  and 
has  risen  above  sin  and  sorrow,  into  a  more  peaceful 
atmosphere.  This  period  extends  from  1609  to 
161 3.  Then  it  was  that  the  poet  gave  us  "  Per- 
icles," "  The  Tempest,"  "  Cymbeline,"  and  the 
"  Winter's  Tale."  In  161 3,  he  wrote  conjointly  with 
Fletcher  the  play  of  "  Henry  VIII."  All  these 
plays  reflect  a  spirit  of  reconciliation  after  misunder- 
standings and  sufferings,  and  great  wrongs  that  have 
been  inflicted.  They  were  written  in  the  new  home 
that  Shakespeare  had  made  unto  himself  in  Strat- 


SHAKESPEARE.  109 

ford-upon-Avon.  They  breathe  afresh  the  country 
air  and  reflect  anew  the  country  scenes  that  he  had 
brought  into  his  earlier  plays,  and  then  for  three 
years  the  poet  was  silent,  resting  from  his  great 
work,  and  the  words  of  "  Prospero  "  in  the  conclud- 
ing lines  of  "  The  Tempest "  seem  to  be  the  last 
words  that  Shakespeare  addressed  to  the  world. 

"  Now  my  charms  are  all  o'erthrown, 
And  what  strength  I  have's  my  own.  .  .  . 
And  my  ending  is  despair, 
Unless  I  be  relieved  by  prayer, 
Which  pierces  so, 
That  it  assails 

Mercy  itself  and  frees  all  faults. 
As  you  from  crimes  would  pardoned  be, 
Let  your  indulgence  set  me  free." 

And  with  this  appeal  to  us  for  forgiveness  of  his 
failings  and  shortcomings  and  for  prayer  to  the 
mercy  seat  of  heaven,  did  Shakespeare  die  on  his 
birthday  in  the  year  1616.  Thus,  were  the  life  and 
the  life-work  of  this  great  poet  rounded  out  with  a 
completeness  that  is  seldom  to  be  found  in  the  his- 
tory  of  man.  He  had  finished  his  work.  He  rested 
in  the  evening  of  life.  He  died  near  the  place  of 
his  birth  and  he  left  the  world  the  richer  for  that 
last  inheritance  that  he  bequeathed  it  in  that  book 
known  as  "  The  Works  of  William  Shakespeare." 


GdLTaRE  OF  THE  SPIRlTdAL 
SENSE 


(111) 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE. 

I. 

I.  (^^HE  human  soul  is  the  informing  principle 
^■'^  of  the  human  body ;  it  is  one  and  simple 
—  a  monad  without  quantity  or  extension — as  all 
spiritual  substances  are  one,  simple  and  unextended ; 
incomplete  in  itself  inasmuch  as  it  must  needs  be 
united  to  the  body  in  order  that  it  may  fully  exercise 
all  its  functions ;  immaterial,  and  therefore  void  of  in- 
ertness ;  ever  active,  ever  exercising  its  activity. 
According  to  the  mode  of  its  action  do  we  speak  of 
it  as  having  this  faculty  or  that  corresponding  to 
the  function  which  it  performs.  But  it  is  still  the 
same  soul,  one  and  undivided,  that  thinks  and  feels, 
that  wills  and  moves  and  is  moved.  And  when  we 
say  that  it  has  certain  faculties  we  simply  mean  that 
it  exercises  certain  modes  of  action  by  placing  itself 
in  certain  definite  relations  with  certain  objects  of 
thought.*      Faculties  of  the  soul  are  therefore  the 

'  A  friend,  in  reading  over  the  proofsheets,  calls  my  atten- 
tion to  the  following  passage  in  St.  Thomas,  in  which  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  soul  and  its  faculties  is  clearly  laid  down : 
Manifestum  est  quod  ipsa  essentia  animae  non  est  principium 
immediatum  suarum  operationum;  sed  operatur  mediantibus 
principiis  accidentalibus.  Unde  potentiae  animae  non  sunt 
ipsa  essentia  animae,  sed  proprietates  ejus.  ("De  Anima." 
XII.)  The  distinction  is  important.  It  is  only  in  God  that 
act  and  essence  are  one,  for  God  is  most  pure  actuality.  But  the 
soul  being  one  and  simple,  and  therefore  void  of  parts,  is  the 
principle  of  all  its  activities ;  whether  mediately  or  immediately, 
it  is  outside  the  scope  of  this  address  to  discuss.  I  am 
merely  laying  down,  in  broadest  outline,  the  soul's  operations. 
E.  M.— 8  (118) 


114  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

soul  itself  viewed  in  the  performance  of  particular 
lines  of  action,  and  they  become  more  or  less  de- 
veloped according  to  the  degree  of  activity  exer- 
cised in  some  one  or  other  direction.  Now  it  is  the 
soul  analyzing,  comparing,  inferring,  coordinating, 
passing  from  known  principles  to  the  discovery  of 
unknown  truths;  viewed  in  this  relation,  the  soul  is 
called  Reason,  and,  under  certain  aspects,  the 
Illative  Sense.'  Now  it  is  the  soul  deciding  this 
to  be  a  good  act,  and  resolving  to  perform  it,  or 
thinking  that  other  to  be  bad,  and  avoiding  it;  so 
acting,  it  is  called  the  Moral  Sense.  Again  it  is  the 
soul  moved  to  pity  by  the  pathos  of  a  scene  painted 
on  the  canvas  or  described  in  the  poem ;  as  the 
subject  of  this  emotion  it  is  called  the  Esthetic 
Sense.  Finally,  it  is  the  soul  leaving  the  noise  and 
distraction  of  the  outside  world,  entering  into  itself 
and  realizing  its  own  misery  and  weakness,  and 
seeking  the  help  and  strength  which  it  finds  not  in 
itself,  where  they  alone  are  to  be  found,  in  the 
God  from  Whom  it  comes  and  on  Whom  it  de- 
pends ;  in  this  highest  and  noblest  action  it  is  called 
the  Spiritual  Sense.* 

^  '•  This  power  of  judging  about  truth  and  error  in  concrete 
matters,  I  call  the  Illative  Sense."  .  .  .  "The  Illative  Sense 
has  its  exercise  in  the  starting  points  as  well  as  in  the  final  re- 
sults of  thought."  Cardinal  Newman.  "Grammar  of  As- 
sent," chap.  ix.  This  chapter  is  an  important  contribution 
to  the  Philosophy  of  Thought. 

^  This  corresponds  rather  with  the  viart^  of  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  than  with  the  Sovrintelligenza  of  Gioberti.  On 
the  use  of  this  latter  term  in  the  sense  of  Gioberti,  see  an 
article  by  the  author  in  the  International  Revie-w  for  March, 
1876,  on  The  Nature  and  Synthetic  Principle  of  Philosophy, 
pp.  204-206  [republished  in  "Essays  Philosophical,"  D.  H. 
McBride  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1896.     Ed.]. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  115 

2.  The  Reason  is  nourished  by  intellectual 
truth ;  the  Moral  Sense  is  strengthened  by  the 
practice  of  good  deeds ;  the  Esthetic  Sense  is  culti- 
vated by  the  correcting  and  refining  of  taste  for 
things  beautiful  and  sublime  ;  the  Spiritual  Sense  is 
fostered  by  the  spirit  of  piety  and  devotion.  This 
fourfold  activity  of  the  soul  may  be  said  to  cover 
the  whole  of  its  operations.  Over  all,  and  the  root 
and  principle  of  all,  giving  life  and  being,  aim  and 
direction,  weight  and  measure  and  intrinsic  worth 
to  all,  is  the  soul's  own  determining  power,  which 
we  call  the  Will.  In  the  harmonious  development 
of  all  four  activities  is  the  complete  culture  of  the 
soul  to  be  effected.  The  exclusive  exercise  of  any 
one  is  detrimental  to  the  rest.  The  exclusive 
exercise  of  the  Reason  dwarfs  the  other  functions  of 
the  soul.  It  dries  up  all  taste  for  art  and  letters 
and  starves  out  the  spirit  of  piety  and  devotion. 
In  the  constant  development  of  the  Esthetic  Sense, 
one  may  refine  the  organs  of  sense  and  cultivate  the 
sensibility,  but  if  it  is  done  to  the  exclusion  of 
rigid  reasoning  and  the  emotions  of  the  superior 
soul,  it  degenerates  into  sentimentalism  and  cor- 
ruption of  heart.  So  also  with  exclusive  Pietism ; 
it  narrows  the  range  of  thought,  fosters  the  spirit 
of  bigotry  and  dogmatism,  and  makes  man  either 
an  extravagant  dreamer  or  an  extreme  fanatic. 
Only  when  goodness  and  truth  walk  hand  in  h^nd, 
and  the  heart  grows  apace  with  the  intellect,  does 
the  soul  develop  into  strong  and  healthy  action. 

3.  Again,  natural  truth  is  the  object  of  Reason ; 
natural  goodness,  the  object  of  the  Moral  Sense; 


116  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

natural  beauty,  whether  in  the  physical,  moral,  or 
intellectual  order,  the  object  of  the  Esthetic  Sense. 
Herein  I  include  as  a  natural  truth,  knowable  by 
the  light  of  Reason,  the  fact  first  and  supreme 
above  all  other  facts,  that  there  is  a  God.'  Now, 
the  Spiritual  Sense  takes  in  all  the  truth,  goodness 
and  beauty  both  of  the  natural  and  revealed  orders, 
and  views  them  in  the  light  of  Faith.  The  same 
intellectual  light  still  glows,  but  added  thereto  is 
the  splendor  of  God's  countenance,"  And  so  the 
vision  of  the  Spiritual  sense  passes  from  the  natural 
up  to  the  plane  of  the  supernatural  world. 

II. 

I.  Here  the  Agnostic  objects  and  with  the 
utmost  confidence  assures  us  that  there  is  no  Super- 
natural order.  He  tells  you  that  he  has  proved 
Christ  a  myth,  the  Gospels  clever  forgeries  and 
Christianity  a  huge  imposition.  He  tells  you  it  is 
all  settled  beyond  controversy ;  only  intellectual 
babes  and  sucklings  think  differently  to-day.'  And 
in    the   name   of    humanity  —  he   loves   humanity 

*  Si  quis  dixerit,  Deum  unum  et  verum,  Creatorem  et 
Dominum  nostrum  per  ea,  quae  facta  sunt,  naturali  rationis 
humanae  lumine  certo  cognosci  non  posse ;  anathema  sit. 
*'  Constitutio  Dogmatica  de  Fide  Catholica."     Can.  II.  i. 

'  Signatum  est  super  nos  lumen'  vultus  tui,  Domine.  Ps. 
iv.  7.     Illuminet  vultum  suum  super  nos.     Ps.  Ixvi.  2. 

'  Schrader,  in  the  following  words,  shows  how  much  is 
involved  in  this  assertion:  "  Sed  quod  horribilius  est  his  jam 
impuris  diebus  nostris  reservatum  fuit,  quibus  '  spurius  qui- 
dam  egressus  est  vir'  contra  Dominum  Nostrum  Jesum 
Christum  castamque  sponsam  ejus  ecclesiam."  He  is  here 
alluding  to  Renan.  "  Infandum  scelus,  quod  consummatum 
non  fuit,  nisi  negato  data  opera  exclusoque  i.  ordine  super- 
naturalium,  hinc  2.  ordine  divino;  turn  3.  illorum  discrimine 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   117 

exceedingly  well  —  and  in  the  name  of  truth  —  he 
reveres  truth — he  begs  you  to  set  aside  all  such 
silly  notions  as  that  there  exists  a  God,  or  that  His 
Providence  directs  the  affairs  of  men,  or  that  you 
have  a  soul.  This  is  indeed  a  new  dispensation. 
It  is  the  gospel  of  negation,  and  the  Agnostic  is  its 
missionary.  But  in  the  name  of  whom  or  of  what 
does  he  come?  Assuredly,  not  in  the  name  of 
common  sense,  for  the  common  sense  of  the  whole 
world  holds  with  absolute  certainty  the  very  op- 
posite. Not  in  the  name  of  revelation,  for  he 
denies  the  possibility  of  a  revealed  religion.  Not 
in  the  name  of  human  authority,  for  he  recognizes 
no  authority  beyond  himself.  Not  in  the  name  of 
reason,  for  in  bringing  himself  to  this  conviction, 
he  ignores  the  primary  laws  of  all  reason.  "  It  is," 
says  Cardinal  Newman,  "  the  highest  wisdom  to 
accept  truth  of  whatever  kind,  wherever  it  is  clearly 
ascertained  to  be  such,  though  there  be  difficulty 

ab  ordine  humano ;  atque  4.  tandem  ipso  everso  ordine  human- 
itatis  et  ejusdem  5.  ab  ordine  brutescentium  discrimine  negate 
atque  everso.  Scilicet  negatio  copulationis  supernaturalis 
naturalisque  ordinis  in  praesentiarum  ad  negationem  ducit 
'deavdpuTrov :  atqui  haec  negatio  attentatio  est 

I.  in  totum  historicum  ordinem,  qui  nunc  pendet  a  Christo 

centro : 

II.  in   universum  ordinem   logicum,   qui   nunc   pendet  a 

Christo  perfectae  veritatis  doctore  : 

III.  in  universum  ordinem  ethicum,   qui   nunc   pendet  a 

Christo  summa  morum  norma : 

IV.  in  universum  ordinem  juridicum,  qui  nunc  pendet  a 

Christo  Domino  supremo  legumlatore : 

V.  et  in  ipsum  tandem  ordinem  artis,  qui  jam  pendet  a 

Christo  divino  pulchritudinis  exemplari.  Videlicet 
a  Christo  pendet  tota  humanitatis  dignitas  in  coelo 
et  in  terra !  "  Clementis  Schrader,  S.  J.  "  De  Trip- 
lici  Ordine  Commentarius,"  pp.  210,  211. 


118  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

in  adjusting  it  with  other  known  truth.'"  Now 
here  is  where  the  Agnostic  errs.  He  has  a  favorite 
theory,  a  pet  notion  of  his  own.  It  is  a  mere  hy- 
pothesis that  may  or  may  not  be  true.  But  he 
finds  difficulty  in  adjusting  it  with  truths  that 
come  home  to  the  highest  order  of  intelligence  with 
an  irresistible  force.  So  much  the  worse  for  both 
truth  and  intellect.  His  pet  conception  must 
stand,  and  the  universally  received  truths  may  van- 
ish into  oblivion.  Of  course,  his  conclusions  cannot 
be  broader  than  his  premises.  The  elements  he 
drops  out  in  the  one  will  naturally  be  missing  in 
the  other.  Eliminating  the  Supernatural  order,  as 
a  consequence  there  remains  in  the  visible  process 
of  his  reasoning  only  the  natural  order. 

2.  Withal,  the  Supernatural  order  exists.  It 
secretly  enters  into  the  Agnostic's  reasoning  and 
becomes  a  disturbing  element  in  his  calculations. 
He  may  ignore  it;  he  may  neglect  it;  he  may  deny 
it ;  but  he  cannot  destroy  it.  In  moral,  social  and 
historical  discussions,  it  crops  out  at  the  most  un- 
expected moments,  or  awaits  him  at  the  end  of  his 
speculations  and  forces  him  into  monstrous  para- 
doxes." And,  strange  to  say,  the  Agnostic  does 
not  perceive  how  illogical  he  is.  He  even  becomes 
aggressive,  and  boldly  asserts  that  in  recognizing 
this  momentous  element  in  human  thought  and 
human  action,  we  thereby  lose  all  claim  to  science. 
Now,  science,  as  you  are  taught,  is  a  methodical 

^ "  Idea  of  a  University."  Lecture  on  Christianity  and 
Scientific  Investigation,  p.  462. 

*  For  instances,  see  Mr.  Mallock's  work,  "  Is  Life  Worth 
Living?"     chap.  ix. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   119 

treatment  of  facts  according  to  given  principles. 
By  means  of  what  principles  and  according  to  what 
method  does  the  Agnostic  arrive  at  this  conclusion? 
So  far  as  he  has  a  principle  at  all,  it  is  reducible  to 
this,  that  what  the  study  of  matter  does  not  reveal 
is  a  dream,  a  shadow ; '  there  is  no  reality  beyond 
the  phenomena  testified  to  by  consciousness  and 
the  senses.'  That  is  to  say,  the  Agnostic  builds  up 
his  materialistic  theories  upon  a  principle  made  ex- 
pressly to  exclude  that  which  he  wishes  to  ignore. 
Is  it  just?  Is  it  scientific?  And  as  for  method, 
the  Agnostic  has  none.  He  holds  aloof  from  all 
religious  thoughts  and  remains  in  a  state  of  apathy 
towards  all  spiritual  issues.  He  may  or  may  not 
have  a  soul ;  it  is  unknowable.  There  may  or  may 
not  be  a  God;  He  also  is  unknowable.  All  such 
questions  he  regards  with  sublime  indifference.  Is 
this  an  attitude  worthy  of  a  responsible  being? 

3.  But  the  Agnostic  will  reply  that  he  has  no 
other  evidence  for  the  Supernatural  than  the  Super- 
natural itself,  and  that  he  is  asked  to  believe  in  this 
unseen  world  without  being  able  to  perceive,  or 
weigh  or  measure  it.  True  it  is  that  the  evidence 
of  the  Supernatural  is  the  Supernatural  itself.  But 
it  is  not  true  that  it  may  not  be  perceived  and  esti- 
mated. Has  the  Agnostic  ever  seen  material  force  ? 
And  yet  he  believes  m  it  and  calculates  some  of  its 
results  as  displayed  in  chemical,  electric  or  other 
material  manifestations.     Even  so  may  the  presence 

'  Leslie  Stephen,  "Dreams  and  Realities." 
*  "The  Value  of  Life;"  A  reply  to  Mr.  Mallock's  work, 
p.  7a. 


120  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

of  that  mysterious  power  called  Grace  be  detected. 
It  shapes  the  lives  of  men  in  a  distinct  mould.  The 
light  of  Faith  and  the  love  of  God  and  the  peace  of 
heart  that  dwell  in  those  living  under  its  influence, 
leaven  their  every  act  and  word  and  thought,  and 
give  their  virtues  a  tone  and  character  that  are 
lacking  in  the  exercise  of  the  same  virtues  by  the 
natural  man.  Donoso  Cortes  was  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  intellects  of  this  age.  When  a  young  man 
he  was  carried  away  by  the  rationalism  and  super- 
ficial philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
grew  cold  towards  the  religion  of  his  childhood  and 
his  mother.  Proud  of  his  genius,  he  dreamed  only 
of  worldly  greatness.  "  I  was,"  he  writes  to  his 
friend  Montalembert,  "possessed  of  a  literary  fanati- 
cism, a  fanaticism  for  expression,  a  fanaticism  for 
beauty  of  form." '  But  the  death  of  a  brother 
whom  he  loved  dearly,  and  the  intimate  acquaint- 
ance of  a  good  and  virtuous  friend  in  whose  ex- 
ample he  discerned  the  action  of  grace,  caused  him 
to  enter  into  himself.  His  eyes  were  opened.  He 
recognized  the  supernatural  character  of  his  friend's 
virtues ;  grace  began  to  work  in  his  own  soul,  and 
led  him  to  become  an  edifying  Christian  and  an 
uncompromising  champion  of  the  Church.  He 
thus  tells  the  story  of  his  conversion. 

"  During  my  stay  in  Paris  I  lived  intimately  with 

M ,  and  this  man  overcame  me  solely  by  the  life 

he  led.  I  had  known  righteous  and  good  men,  or 
rather  I  had  known  only  righteous  and  good  men ; 
still  between    the   righteousness   and   goodness  of 


^Oeuvres.     Ed.  Louis  Veuillot.     T.  I.  Int.,  p.  14. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  121 

other  men  and  the  righteousness  and  goodness  of 
my  friend,  I  found  an  immeasurable  distance.  This 
difference  was  not  one  of  degree  simply ;  it  was  one 
of  kinds  of  righteousness  in  all  respects  distinct. 
And  upon  reflection  I  clearly  saw  the  difference  to 
be  this,  that  the  righteousness  of  others  was  natural, 
whereas  that  of  this  man  was  supernatural  or  Chris- 
tian." ' 

And  commenting  upon  his  conversion,  he  adds: 

"As  you  see,  neither  talent  nor  reason  had  any 
influence  in  bringing  it  about;  with  my  weak  talent 
and  my  sickly  reason,  death  might  have  stricken  me 
down  before  faith  would  have  come  to  me.  The 
mystery  of  my  conversion  is  a  mystery  of  tender- 
ness. I  did  not  love  God,  and  God  wished  me  to 
love  Him;  I  love  Him  now,  and  because  I  love  Him 
I  am  converted." " 

These  are  beautiful  words  revealing  the  beauti- 
ful simplicity  of  a  great  soul.  And  so,  as  clearly 
as  in  St.  Paul  and  St.  Augustine,  may  we  perceive 
in  the  good  and  holy  men  of  our  own  day,  grace 
abounding. 

4.  No;  the  supernatural  world  is  a  reality  as 
real  as  —  and  in  a  sense  more  real  than  —  the  nat- 
ural world.  He  who  denies  or  ignores  it,  under- 
stands not  himself  nor  humanity  nor  the  universe 
in  which  he  finds  himself.  The  human  heart  knows 
neither  rest  nor  happiness  till  it  becomes  sanctified 
in  this  mysterious  world.  Therefore  it  is,  that  an 
Augustine  will  cry  out  from  the  depths  of  his  own 
experience:  "Lord,  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thy- 
self, and  our   heart    is   restless   till    it    reposes   in 

'  Oeuvres.     Ed.  Louis  Veuillot.     T.  II.,  p.  lao. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  121. 


122  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Thee."*  And  with  no  less  conviction  does  Spi- 
noza lay  it  down  as  a  positive  truth  that  the  per- 
fect understanding,  which  with  him  is  equivalent 
to  the  life  of  the  intellect  —  mentis  vita  —  is  naught 
else  than  the  apprehension  of  God  and  of  the 
attributes  and  acts  which  follow  from  His  Divine 
Nature."  Where,  then,  is  the  wisdom  of  denying 
a  fact  so  palpable  to  men  standing  at  such  oppo- 
site poles  of  thought  as  Spinoza  and  St.  Augus- 
tine? Those  professing  such  wisdom  may  indeed 
be  possessed  of  knowledge  varied  and  practical  in 
things  material  and  of  the  senses,  but  concerning 
things  spiritual  and  of  the  Supernatural  order  they 
live  in  blind  ignorance.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  is 
not  also  willful  ignorance. 

III. 

I.     Let  us  draw  nearer  to  this  mysterious  world 

of  grace,  and  study  the  secret  of  that  power  by 

which  it  subdues  the  fiercest  natures  and  controls 

the   most    brilliant    intellects.       Not    only    is    the 

Supernatural  a  fact,  and   an   insurmountable  one, 

but  it  contains  in  itself  the  reason  for  the  existence 

of  the  natural;  for  whilst  it  supposes  the  natural 

in   the   order  of  ideas,   in   the   order  of  things   it 

exists  prior  thereto,  and  regulates  the  condition  of 

its  existence.     In  the  Word  were  all  things  created. 

God   spoke    and    they    were.     Their    ideals    dwelt 

in  that  eternal  Word.     From  all  eternity,  through 

all  time,  or  rather  in  a  perpetual  Now  —  for  there  is 

^  Domine,  fecisti  nos  ad  te,  et  inquietum  est  cor  nostrum 
donee  requiescat  in  te.     "  Conf."  Lib.  VII. 
»  "  Ethics."     P.  IV.     App.,  §4. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   123 

neither  past  nor  future  in  God '  —  God  contem- 
plates those  ideals  and  the  reason  for  their  exist- 
ence in  the  Word.  For  the  Word  is  the  conception 
of  the  Divine  Intelligence.*  It  is  God  conceiving 
Himself.  And  in  this  Divine  Conception  the 
Father  recognizes  Himself,  and  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  all  other  things  contained  in 
the  Divine  Intelligence.  Therefore  all  knowledge, 
all  wisdom,  all  created  things  are  in  the  Word  and 
exist  by  reason  of  the  Word.' 

2.  And  so,  St.  John,  in  the  sublime  hymn  with 
which  he  opens  his  Gospel  of  love,  reveals  to  us 
this  Word  as  co-eternal  with  the  Father,  the  One 
by  Whom  all  things  were  made,  and  the  source  of 
their  life  and  their  light.  He,  the  disciple  whom 
Jesus  loved,  and  who  was  privileged  to  rest  his 
head  upon  the  bosom  of  the  Incarnate  Word,  drew 
therefrom  the  secret  of  His  Divinity  and  Person- 
ality, and  with  the  directness  and  simplicity  of 
genius  and  inspiration,  broke  through  the  clouds  in 
which  human  thought  had  enveloped  that  Divine 

*  Plato  expresses  this  distinction  very  clearly  :  '*  And  the 
terms  it -was  —  t«)  r'^r  —  and  it  -will  be  —  to  T'earai  —  are  gener- 
ated forms  of  time,  which  we  have  wrongly  and  unawares 
transferred  to  an  eternal  essence."     Timaeus.  XIV.,  I. 

'  Dicitur  autem  proprie  Verbum  in  Deo,  secundum  quod 
Verbum  significat  conceptum  intellectus.  "Summa"  S. 
Thomae.  Pars.  I.,  Quaest.  XXXIV.,  Art.  I.  Id  enim  quod 
intellectus  in  concipiendo  format,  est  Verbum.  Intellectus 
autem  ipse,  secundum  quod  est  per  speciem  intelligibilem  in 
actu,  consideratur  absolute.     Ibid,  ad  2. 

*  Sic  ergo  uni  soli  personae  in  divinis  convenit  dici,  eo 
modo  quo  dicitur  Verbum.  Eo  vere  modo  quo  dicitur  res  in 
verbo  intellecta,  cuilibet  personae  convenit  dici  Pater  enim 
intelligendo  se,  et  Filium,  et  Spiritum  Sanctum,  et  omnia  alia 
quae  ejus  scientia  continentur,  concipit  Verbum ;  ut  sic  tota 
Trinitas  Verbo  dicatur,  et  etiam  omnis  creatura.     Ibid,  ad  3. 


124  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

Word,  and  at  once  and  forever  gave  full,  clear  and 
distinct  expression  to  that  which  men  hitherto  had 
only  stammered : 

1.  "/«  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 

2.  The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 

3.  All  things  were  made  by  Him  :  and  without 
Him  was  made  nothing  that  was  made. 

4.  In  Him  was  Life  and  the  Life  was  the  light 
of  men. 

Thus  it  is  that  in  this  Divine  Person,  the  Word, 
we  find  the  cause  and  the  motive  for  our  existence. 
Here  is  the  source  of  our  life,  our  intelligence,  our 
very  being.  The  light  of  our  created  reason,  by 
which  we  are  enabled  to  contemplate  this  great 
primary  truth,  is  a  spark  kindled  at  the  focus  of  the 
Uncreated  Reason. 


•  St.  John,  chap.  i.  The  Abb6  Baunard,  in  his  life  of  the 
Evangelist,  thus  sums  up  the  philosophic  significance  of  these 
sublime  words,  as  against  the  errors  that  were  then  rife : 

To  the  Word  of  the  Gnostics,  created  and  born  in  time, 
the  Evangelist  opposes  the  eternity  of  the  word  :  In  the  begin- 
ning rvas  the  Word. 

To  the  Word  of  Plato  and  of  the  Academy,  a  superior  but 
purely  ideal  conception  of  the  human  understanding,  the 
Evangelist  opposes  the  reality  of  the  Word  and  His  Divinity : 
And  the  Word  was  God. 

To  the  Word  of  Philo,  simple  instrument  of  God  in  the 
creative  work,  the  Evangelist  opposes  the  creation  by  the 
Word,  principle  of  all  that  is:  Everything  ivas  made  by  Him. 

To  the  Dualist  system,  setting  forth  two  concurring  prin- 
ciples of  things,  the  Evangelist  opposes  the  Word,  sole  prin- 
ciple and  sole  creator  of  every  contingent  being:  All  things 
■were  made  by  Him;  and  -without  Him  -was  made  nothing  that 
•was  made. 

Finally,  to  Docetism  rejecting  the  reality  of  the  flesh  of 
Christ,  the  Evangelist  opposed  the  astonishing  formula:  And 
the  Word  -was  made  flesh.  "Life  of  tlie  Apostle  St.  John.'' 
Eng.  tr.,  p.  301. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   125 

3.  Nor  is  this  all.  The  creative  act,  being  one 
of  love  as  well  as  of  power  and  intelligence,  had 
for  its  end  none  other  than  God  himself.  But  how 
raise  up  the  infinitely  impotent  into  participation 
with  the  glory  of  the  Infinitely  Potent?  How  give 
such  importance  to  the  infinitely  small  that  it  may 
not  be  lost  in  the  Infinitely  Great?  For  how 
immense  so  ever  the  finite  may  be  in  itself,  when 
compared  with  the  infinite  it  becomes  as  nothing. 
There  is  no  term  of  comparison ;  the  ratio  of  one 
to  the  other  cannot  be  expressed.'  Divine  Love, 
without  obligation  or  necessity,  acting  with  the  full 
freedom  of  omnipotence,  determined  the  solution 
of  the  mystery.  The  Word  in  His  Divine  Infin- 
itude, touches  the  finite  and  takes  upon  Himself  as 
the  most  fitting  in  the  whole  of  Creation*  our 
human  nature:  ''And  the  Word  was  made  flesh, 
and  dwelt  amongst  us."  By  this  mysterious  act, 
the  chasm  between  the  finite  creation  and  the  In- 
finite Creator  became  bridged  over;  human  nature 
was  raised  up  into  the  sphere  of  the  Supernatural, 
and  all  created  things  were  made  participators  in 
the  glory  of  the  Divinity.  Man  was  rendered 
worthy  of  his  destiny.  He  might  fall  from  grace 
and  favor  before  his  heavenly  Father,  but  in  the 
Word   made  flesh  —  in    the   God-man  —  he  has  a 


'  This  may  be  made  plain  by  the  following  algebraic  form- 
ulae, in  which  /  =  any  finite  quantity  and  the  symbol  »  = 
infinity:  ^  -  •  ;  ^  =0;  that  is,  the  ratios  between  infinity  and 
finiteness  run  either  into  infinity  or  nothing. 

»  «*  Summa."  Pars.  III.  Quaest.  IV.,  Art.  2,  Jesus  Christ 
assumes  human  nature  in  His  Divine  Person,  but  not  in  His 
Divine  Nature.     Ibid.  Quaest  II.,  Art.  2. 


126  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

propitiator.  And  so,  the  Word  also  becomes  the 
Redeemer.  In  the  Word,  then,  dwell  grace  and 
hope  and  salvation  for  poor,  weak,  struggling 
humanity.  It  is  the  fountain,  ever  flowing,  never 
diminishing,  of  the  love  and  mercy  from  which  man 
has  drawn  grace  from  the  beginning. 

*'Tho'  truths  in  manhood  darkly  join, 
Deep-seated  in  our  mystic  frame, 
We  yield  all  blessing  to  the  name 
Of  Him  that  made  them  current  coin."* 

4.  Here  we  may  rest.  We  have  ascended 
giddy  heights  and  cannot  soar  higher.  In  contem- 
plating the  Word  we  are  contemplating  that  which 
is  the  object  of  God's  own  complacency.  It  is  the 
source  of  all  knowledge  and  the  ideal  of  all  per- 
fection. It  is  the  light  of  the  world,  the  life  of 
nations,  the  clue  to  epochs.  Its  Human  Manifes- 
tation is  the  central  fact  of  history,  giving  meaning 
and  significancy  to  all  other  facts.  It  is  the  inspi- 
ration of  whatever  is  sacred  and  ennobling  in  litera- 
ture. It  is  the  dwelling  place  for  the  ideal  in  art. 
It  is  the  guide  of  conscience,  the  abode  of  truth, 
the  light  that  dispelleth  all  intellectual  and  moral 
darkness  and  bringeth  life  and  warmth,  the  van- 
quisher of  evil,  and  the  secret  spring  of  all  true  joy. 
The  splendor  of  Its  glory  shines  forth  in  the  beau' 
tiful  things  of  nature,  and  sheds  lustre  upon  the 
outpourings  of  grace  as  revealed  in  human  actions. 
Loveliness  and  beauty  and  grandeur  and  sublimity 
in  word  and  work,  in  color  and  figure,  are,  each  in 
its   degree,  faint  glimmerings   of   the  resplendent 

»  Tennyson.     "  In  Memoriam,"  XXXVI. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  127 

glory  abiding  in  that  Divine  Word  which  is  the 
source  and  cause  of  both  the  natural  and  Super- 
natural. 

IV. 
I.  It  is  the  wisdom  of  true  philosophy  to  take 
man  as  he  is  and  deal  with  him  accordingly.  Now, 
man  is  indeed  in  his  essence  and  nature  a  rational 
animal.  But  this  definition  of  the  School  says  not 
all.  Man  is  more.  He  is  also  a  child  of  grace.  No 
sooner  had  he  been  created  man  than  he  became  the 
recipient  of  God's  choicest  favors.  And  when,  by 
the  Fall,  he  had  forfeited  many  of  his  high  prerog- 
atives, he  still  retained  sufficient  grace  by  which 
he  was  enabled  to  repent  and  be  converted.  It  is 
within  every  man's  power  to  attain  the  high  destiny 
to  which  he  has  been  called ;  but  he  can  do  so  only 
by  reason  of  the  saving  grace  that  flows  from  the 
Word.  This  is  not  a  law  of  to-day  or  yesterday ;  it 
is  of  all  time.  "  We  are  plants,"  says  Plato,  "  not 
of  earth,  but  of  heaven  ;  and  from  the  same  source 
whence  the  soul  first  arose,  a  Divine  Nature,  rais- 
ing aloft  our  head  and  root,  directs  our  whole 
bodily  frame." '  We  come  from  God  that  we  may 
go  back  to  Him.  The  Word  became  incarnate  for 
all,  merited  for  all,  died  for  all,  redeemed  all  in 
order  that  all  might  have  life  everlasting.  Ours, 
and  ours  alone,  will  be  the  fault  if  we  should  wan- 
der away  from  that  noble  destiny, 

"Not  in  entire  forgetfulness. 
Not  in  utter  nakedness. 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory,  do  we  come, 
From  God  -who  is  our  home."'* 


'  "Timaeus."     Cap.  Ixxi. 

*  Wordsworth.     "Ode  on  Immortality." 


128  JSSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

2.  Therefore  I  would  have  you  foster  in  your- 
selves primarily  and  above  all  the  Spiritual  Life. 
It  is  worthy  of  your  noblest  efforts  and  your  most 
undivided  attention.  No  time  should  be  thought 
too  precious  to  devote  to  it,  for  it  deals  with  the 
things  of  eternity ;  no  thought  too  sustained  or  too 
painful,  for  its  object  is  the  Light  of  all  intelli- 
gence. In  the  prayers  that  you  make  to  Him  who 
is  the  Life  and  the  Light ;  in  the  sacraments  that 
are  administered  to  you ;  in  the  sermons  that  you 
hear  and  the  doctrinal  instructions  that  are  given 
you,  do  you  imbibe  the  food  that  will  nourish  and 
sustain  in  you  the  spiritual  life.  And  for  our  souls' 
sake  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  all  of  us  receive 
abundance  of  this  heavenly  manna.  This  is  the 
one  thing  necessary.  But  it  is  not  with  the  Spir- 
itual Life  that  I  am  now  concerned ;  it  is  rather 
with  the  Spiritual  Sense.  They  are  distinct  and 
are  not  always-  found  together.  The  sentiment  of 
piety  and  sensible  relish  for  Divine  things  may  be 
very  weak  in  a  nature  that  is  spiritually  strong. 
And  also,  one  may  be  very  weak  in  the  practice  of 
virtue,  and  still  possess  this  sentiment  to  a  high 
degree  of  refinement  and  cultivation.  But  I  speak 
of  this  Spiritual  Sense  as  a  faculty  of  your  soul 
which  requires  culture  as  does  Reason  or  any  other 
faculty.  And  I  take  it  that  should  you  neglect  its 
cultivation  there  would  be  lacking  something  to 
the  complete  development  of  your  soul  functions. 
Your  studies  give  an  outward  tendency  to  your 
soul ;  they  withdraw  it  from  itself.  They  are  there- 
fore to  it  a  species  of  distraction.     But  the  soul  has 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   129 

an  inward  life ;  and  for  the  proper  development  of 
this  inward  life,  it  behooves  it  to  enter  into  itself 
and  cultivate  the  interior  spirit. 

3,  This  is  the  function  of  the  Spiritual  Sense. 
Without  it  our  thinking  were  incomplete.  It  is  an 
incentive  to  higher  and  superior  culture.  Would 
you  know  why  it  is  that  the  religious  life  has  been 
at  all  times  a  nursery  for  learning  and  a  fountain 
head  of  original  thought  ?  Much  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  scholars  and  thinkers  have  instinctively  sought 
therein  a  refuge  from  the  noise  and  whirl  of  worldl5 
affairs.  But  much  also  is  due  to  the  cultivation  d 
the  Spiritual  Sense.  It  enlarged  their  intellectual 
horizon.  It  threw  upon  things  an  additional  and 
far-reaching  light.  It  gave  those  men  a  favorable 
vantage  ground  from  which  they  might  survey 
deeds  and  doers  of  deeds  with  unbiased  mind. 
Sheltered  in  the  sanctuary  of  religion,  away  from 
the  storms  of  political  strife  and  free  from  the 
struggles  and  anxieties,  the  temptations  and  dis- 
tractions that  beset  their  less  fortunate  brothers 
battling  through  the  turmoil  of  life,  their  souls 
rested  in  a  peaceful  calm  beneath  this  spiritual  sky 
that  brought  joy  and  contentment  to  their  hearts, 
and  shed  upon  them  a  light  which  beamed  forth 
from  their  countenances,  even  as  it  enhanced  the 
clearness  of  their  intellectual  vision.  And  so,  when 
they  looked  out  upon  the  world  and  the  things  of  the 
world,  they  saw  more  distinctly  the  needs  and  wants 
and  shortcomings  of  humanity,  and  were  the  first  to 
apply  the  remedy.  They  led  the  van  in  arts  and 
letters,  in  science  and  education,  and  in  all  that 
E.  M.-9 


130  £SSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

goes  to  make  up  a  people's  civilization.  With  no 
slight  reason,  then,  does  Renan  speak  of  monastic 
institutions  as  a  great  school  of  originality  for  the 
human  mind.' 

4.  We  have  nothing  to  fear  from  Religion. 
She  is  our  strength  and  our  support. 

"  The  splendor  of  the  Divine  truths  received  into 
the  mind,  helps  the  understanding;  and  far  from  de. 
tracting  from  its  dignity,  rather  adds  to  its  nobility, 
keenness  and  stability." 

So  speaks  His  Holiness,  Leo  XHL,  in  his  noble 
vindication  of  Christian  philosophy."  Such  is  also 
the  experience  of  Maine  de  Biran  whom  Cousin 
pronounces  the  greatest  metaphysician  that  has 
honored  France  since  Malebranche.'  And  his  tes- 
timony is  all  the  more  valuable  because  it  is  the 
outcome  of  long  and  circuitous  wanderings  through 
the  mazes  of  philosophic  errors,  with  here  and  there 
a  glimpse  of  light,  till  finally  in  his  mature  years, 
after  much  groping  and  great  toil,  the  full  splendor 
of  truth  burst  upon  him.     He  says : 

^^  Religion  alone  solves  the  problems  put  by  philos- 
ophy. She  alone  tells  us  where  to  find  truth,  abso- 
lute reality.  Moreover,  she  shows  us  that  we  live 
in  a  perpetual  illusion  when  we  estimate  things  by 
the  testimony  of  the  senses,  or  according  to  our 
passions,  or  even  according  to  an  artificial  and  con- 
ventional reason.     It  is  in  raising  ourselves  up  to 

^  Mais  il  est  certain  qu'en  perdant  les  institutions  de  la  vie 
monastique  I'esprit  humain  a  perdu  une  grande  ^cole  d' 
originality.     "  Etudes  d'Histoire  Religieuse,"  p.  318. 

*  Encyclical  •'  ^terni  Patris,"  1879. 

'  "Nouvelles  Considerations  sur  le  Rapport  du  Physique 
et  du  Moral."  Ouvrage  Posthume  de  Maine  de  Biran,  Preface 
de  M.  Cousin,  p.  6. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  131 

God  and  seeking  union  with  Him  by  His  grace,  that 
we  see  and  appreciate  things  as  they  are.  Certain  it 
is  that  the  point  of  view  of  the  senses  and  passions 
is  not  at  all  that  of  human  reason ;  still  less  is  it 
that  of  the  superior  reason,  which,  strengthened  by 
religion,  soars  far  above  all  earthly  things.'" 

These  are  not  the  words  of  a  cloistered  monk, 
nor  of  a  religious  teacher.  He  who  penned  them 
had  been  a  materialist  in  philosophy  and  a  worldling 
in  practical  life,  and  though  he  had  outgrown  his 
materialism,  and  cast  off  much  of  the  spirit  of  the 
world,  still  at  the  time  he  penned  them,  he  did  not 
acknowledge  himself  a  Christian.  They  are  his  in- 
most convictions  wrung  from  him  in  self-commun- 
ion by  the  spirit  of  truth. 

V. 

I.  But  I  need  not  go  beyond  yourselves  for 
further  reason  why  you  should  cultivate  the 
Spiritual  Sense.  You  now  look  out  upon  the 
world  decked  in  all  the  roseate  hues  that  your 
young  imaginations  weave;  your  fancies  filled  with 
schemes  of  ambition ;  bent  upon  achieving  success 
in  some  one  or  other  walk  of  life,  you  are  eager, 
even  to  impatience,  to  enter  upon  your  course;  and 
you  may  think  it  a  loss  of  time,  a  diverting  you 
from  your  main  purpose,  to  enter  seriously  upon 
the  cultivation  of  this  Spiritual  Sense.  On  the  con- 
trary, you  will  find  in  it  a  help.  The  present  is 
only  a  passing   phase   of   your   existence.     Youth 

*  yournal  Intime.  Quoted  in  A.  Nicolas :  "  Etude  sur 
Maine  de  Biran."  (Paris,  1858.)  This  monograph  is  a  philo- 
sophical gem,  which  deserves  to  be  better  known. 


132  £SSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

soon  fades  and  strength  decays ;  and  as  shock  after 
shock  in  your  struggle  through  life,  demolishes  one 
after  another  the  air  castles  which  you  so  long  and 
so  laboriously  constructed,  you  will  more  and  more 
feel  the  necessity  of  ceasing  to  lean  upon  broken 
reeds  and  of  looking  within  your  soul's  interior  for 
an  abiding  comfort.  And  if  you  find  there  but 
emptiness,  even  as  you  have  found  hoUowness  and 
deceit  without,  you  will  grow  hardened  and  cynical. 
But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  you  have  learned  to 
commune  with  yourself  and  to  make  your  soul's  in. 
terior  the  guest  chamber  in  which  to  entertain  the 
Divine  Word  —  the  Emmanuel  dwelling  within  you 
—  in  Him  you  will  find  renewed  strength  to  fight 
your  battles  with  the  world,  to  help  you  in  trouble, 
to  soothe  you  in  pain,  and  to  console  you  in  sorrow 
and  affliction.  And  so,  in  cultivating  the  Spiritual 
Sense  you  are  also  educating  yourselves  up  to  the 
larger  views  of  life,  and  learning  the  great  lesson  of 
patience  and  forbearance. 

2.  And  there  is  another  moment  —  a  supreme 
moment  —  when  the  language  of  the  soul,  the  senti- 
ment of  piety  and  relish  for  Divine  things,  the 
habit  of  sweet  communion  with  your  Savior,  will 
be  to  you  a  blessing  and  a  comfort.  It  is  when  you 
are  prostrate  on  the  pallet  of'sickness,  and  life  is 
ebbing  fast,  and  the  helpless  body  seems  to  be 
sinking  down  abysmal  depths  with  the  weight  of 
its  own  inertness.  From  time  to  time  the  soul's 
flickering  flame  lights  up  into  a  sudden  blaze  of 
consciousness  and  animation,  as  if  wrestling  hard  to 
be  free.     Dear  friends  and  near  relatives  may  be 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   188 

there,  hovering  around  you,  ministering  to  your 
every  want  and  gratifying  your  least  desire.  But 
in  the  questioning  look  with  which  they  watch  the 
face  of  your  physician,  and  the  anxious  glances 
that  they  cast  upon  you,  and  the  subdued  whisper- 
ings in  which  they  speak  their  worst  fears,  you 
learn  that  you  are  beyond  all  human  aid.  Fainter 
flickers  the  vital  spark  and  weaker  grows  the  frame, 
and  loving  faces  look  upon  you  with  a  more  wist- 
ful look,  and  loving  forms  pass  before  you  with  a 
more  stealthy  tread ;  but  they  are  to  you  as  though 
they  were  not.  Fainter  and  feebler  you  become, 
and  the  world  recedes  farther  and  farther  from  you, 
and  those  you  love  so  dearly  seem  afar  off,  and  the 
distance  between  you  and  them  grows  more  and 
more.  You  feel  yourself  sinking  into  unconscious- 
ness, and  you  know  that  your  next  waking  will  be 
in  another  world,  beyond  the  reach  of  everything 
in  life  around  which  your  heartstrings  are  twined. 
The  last  rites  of  the  Church  are  administered  to 
you,  and  as  your  senses  are  about  shutting  out  for- 
ever the  sights  and  sounds  of  this  world,  you  catch 
as  the  faint  echo  of  a  far-off  voice,  the  words  of  the 
priest,  "  Go  forth,  O  Christian  soul."  Happy  will 
you  be  in  that  dread  hour,  if,  when  you  appear 
before  the  Divine  Searcher  of  hearts,  the  pure  light 
of  the  Word  penetrates  no  corner  that  you  did  not 
already  know,  and  reveals  no  sin  that  has  not 
already  been  repented  of  and  atoned  for.  Thrice 
happy  will  you  be  when  you  meet  the  Divine 
Presence  face  to  face,  if,  having  cultivated  the 
Spiritual  Sense  and  acquired  a  relish   for  Divine 


134  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

truths,  you  find  that  you  are  familiar  with  the 
language  of  love  and  adoration,  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving,  which  should  be  yours  for  all  eter- 
nity, and  that  you  are  not  as  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
land,  but  rather  as  a  child  welcomed  home  to  his 
Father's  House  after  a  life-long  exile.  Wise  indeed 
were  it  that  we  all  of  us  learn  in  time  this  language 
which  must  be  ours  throughout  eternity. 

VI. 

I.  There  are  two  manuals  of  instruction  and 
initiation  into  this  mystical  language  of  the  soul, 
which  I  would  especially  recommend  to  you.  The 
one  is  the  Book  of  the  Gospels.  You  know  its  con- 
tents ;  but  you  must  never  weary  of  its  perusal. 
You  will  always  find  in  it  something  new.  It  treats 
of  a  subject  that  never  grows  old.  We  cannot  hear 
enough  of  Him,  the  Meek  One,  walking  among  men 
and  doing  good  wherever  he  went.  Open  the  book 
reverently  and  lovingly,  and  let  the  light  of  His 
Blessed  Face  shine  out  upon  you  from  its  inspired 
pages.  Sweetly  and  simply  it  traces  his  footsteps; 
in  loving  accents  it  recounts  the  words  He  spoke, 
the  deeds  He  did,  the  miracles  He  wrought.  It 
reveals  the  God-Man.  It  tells  of  His  sufferings 
from  the  manger  in  Bethlehem  to  the  cross  on 
Calvary.  It  tells  of  His  patience  and  forbearance, 
of  His  humility  and  modesty,  of  His  compassion 
for  sinners  and  His  hatred  for  hypocrisy.  His 
words  are  as  balm  to  the  bruised,  rest  to  the  weary, 
peace  to  the  restless,  joy  to  the  sorrowing,  and  light 
to  those  groping  in  the  dark.     They  penetrate  all 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  135 

hearts  because  they  flow  from  a  heart  loving  man 
with  an  infinite  love.  Our  familiarity  with  them 
from  our  childhood  up  may  lead  us  to  lose  sight  of 
their  infinite  worth.  The  sublimest  hymn  that  was 
ever  poured  forth  from  the  lips  of  man  in  prayer 
and  the  praise  of  his  Creator  is  the  Our  Father.  In 
its  grandeur  it  rises  from  the  lowest  depths  of  man's 
nothingness  to  the  throne  of  Infinite  Majesty;  in  its 
pathos  it  searches  the  heart,  touches  its  feebleness 
and  exposes  its  wants,  with  the  simplicity  and 
tenderness  of  a  child  leaning  upon  a  fond  and 
merciful  father.  It  is  at  once  supplication,  exhor- 
tation, instruction,  praise  and  worship.  Again,  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  embodies  all  that  there  is  of 
good  and  perfect  in  moral  thought,  moral  word, 
and  moral  work  in  the  whole  life  of  humanity. 
And  so  I  might  go  on  enumerating  the  beauties 
and  sublimities  of  this  marvelous  Book  and  never 
tire,  never  get  done.  Its  beauty  is  untold ;  its 
wisdom  is  unfathomable.  They  are  the  beauty 
and  the  wisdom  of  Him  who  is  the  ideal  'of  all 
loveliness  and  the  source  of  all  wisdom. 

2.  That  other  book  which  I  would  recommend 
to  you  has  garnered  a  few  of  the  lessons  revealed 
in  these  Gospels  and  bound  them  together  in  rich 
and  ripe  sheaves  of  thought.  A  rare  harvesting 
indeed  is  this  book.  It  is  known  in  every  tongue 
and  its  praises  have  been  sung  in  every  note. 
Next  to  its  original  and  source  it  is  the  most  popu- 
lar book  ever  written.  I  speak  of  "  The  Imitation 
of  Christ,"  which  Fontenelle  without  exaggeration 
well  styles  the  most  beautiful  book  that  ever  came 


136  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

from  the  hands  of  man.'  It  has  been  admired  by  all 
classes  of  thinkers  and  all  shades  of  creeds.  The 
staunch  Tory,  Doctor  Johnson,  loved  it  and  used 
to  speak  of  it  as  a  good  book  to  receive  which  the 
world  opened  its  arms."  The  infidel  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau  wept  over  it/  John  Wesley  published 
an  edition  of  it  as  food  for  the  hungering  souls  to 
whom  he  ministered  in  the  Durham  coalpits  and  on 
the  Devonshire  moors.  Bossuet  called  it  a  book 
full  of  unction ;  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  the  world's 
consoler;  and  Sir  Thomas  More  said  that  the  book, 
if  read,  would  secure  the  nation's  happiness. 
Surely,  a  book  receiving  praise  from  so  many  and 
such  diverse  sources  is  worthy  of  your  intimate 
acquaintance,  and  it  will  be  to  me  a  great  pleasure 
to  introduce  to  you  both  the  author  and  the  book. 
The  author  was  Thomas  Hamerken  of  Kempen, 
commonly  known  as  Thomas  k  Kempis  (i  380-1471). 
We  will  first  consider  the  man  and  his  times ;  after- 
wards, we  will  discuss  the  spirit,  the  philosophy 
and  the  influence  of  the  book. 

VII. 

I.  The  century  in  which  Thomas  Hamerken 
saw  the  light,  was  the  transition  period  between 
the  mediaeval  and  the  modern  world.  The  Cru- 
sades had  done  their  work;  the  Gothic  Cathedral 
had  been  built ;   the  Miracle  Play  had  ceased  to 

'  Le  plus  beau  livre  qui  soit  parti  de  la  main  d'un  homme, 
puisque  I'Evangile  n'en  vient  pas. 

*  Boswell's  "Johnson,"  vol.  II.,  p.  143. 

*  Dublin  University  Magazine,  June,  1869. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   137 

instruct ;  Thomas  of  Aquin  had  put  the  finishing 
hand  to  Scholastic  Philosophy  and  left  it  a  scien- 
tific monument  worthy  of  his  genius  and  the  age ; 
Dante  had  crystallized  the  faith  and  science,  the 
fierce  hate  and  the  strong  love,  the  poetry,  the 
politics  and  the  theology,  the  whole  spirit  of 
Mediaevalism  in  his  sublime  allegory.  And  now 
that  old  order  was  breaking  up,  and,  in  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  new,  much  anarchy  prevailed.  In  the 
general  crumbling  away  of  institutions,  the  human 
intellect  seemed  bewildered.  A  groping  and  a  rest- 
lessness existed  throughout ;  there  was  a  yearning 
of  men  after  they  knew  not  what,  for  the  night  was 
upon  them  and  they  were  impatient  for  the  com- 
ing of  the  dawn.  Where  were  they  to  seek  the  light  ? 
The  ignorant  and  the  obstinate,  without  either  the 
requisite  knowledge  or  the  necessary  patience  to 
discover  the  laws  of  nature,  sought  to  wrest  from 
her  the  secrets  of  which  she  is  possessed,  by  the  pro- 
cess of  magic,  astrology  and  simulated  intercourse 
with  spirits.'     Hecate  was  their  inspiring  genius. 

2.  The  learned  sought  the  light,  on  the  one 
hand,  through  the  mists  and  mazes  of  the  old  issue 
of  Nominalism  and  Realism,  which  had  been  re- 
vived by  William  of  Ockham  (d.  1347),  and  con- 
tinued by  John  Buridan  (d.  after  1350),  Albert  of 
Saxony  (who  taught  at  Paris  about  1 350 -60), 
Marsilius  of  Inghen  (d.  1392),  and  the  zealous  Peter 
of  Ailly   (1350- 1425),*     In    their    gropings    they 

*  See  Gorres.  "La  Mystique,"  trad,  par  M.  Ste-Foi, 
Partie  III.     •'  La  Mystique  Diabolique,"  t.  IV.,  chap.  viii.  xiv. 

*  Ueberweg.  *' History  of  Philosophy."  Eng.  tr.,  vol.  I., 
p.  465. 


138  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

gathered  up  little  more  than  an  abundance  of 
error,  aridity  and  intellectual  pride.  Others,  fol- 
lowing in  the  wake  of  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  began 
to  cultivate  an  exaggerated  taste  for  the  ancient 
classics  and  to  revive  the  spirit  of  Paganism. 
Children  were  instructed  in  Greek,'  and  the  pedantic 
quarrels  of  grammarians  divided  cities  and  even 
whole  provinces.'  Others  again,  weary  of  the  barren 
disputations  of  the  Schools,  sought  the  light  in 
union  with  the  Godhead  through  the  dark  and  un- 
safe paths  of  Mysticism,  Master  Eckhart  pro- 
claimed it  their  goal  and  only  refuge.  He 
undertook  to  point  out  the  way,  but  became  lost 
in  the  mazes  of  Neoplatonism  and  Pantheism. 
Under  his  influence,  whole  nations,  impelled  by  an 
indefinite  yearning  for  spiritual  life,  rose  up  as  one 
man,  in  universal  clamor  for  mystical  union  with 
the  Godhead.  They  became  intoxicated  with  the 
New  Science.  He  had  taught  them  that  the  cre- 
ation of  the  world  and  the  generation  of  the  Word 
were  one  act ;  that  the  soul  preexisted  in  God  from 
all  eternity ;  that  the  Light  of  the  Word  was  in- 
separable from  the  light  of  the  soul,  and  that  in 
union  with  that  Word  were  to  be  found  perfection 
and  knowledge.' 


*  Ambroise,  de  I'ordre  des  Camaldules,  au  commencement 
de  1400,  trouvait  dans  Mantoue  des  enfants  et  des  jeunes  filles  ver- 
sus dans  le  grec.  Cantu.  "Histoire  Universelle,"  t.  XII.,  p.  578. 

'  Les  querelles  des  pedants  hargneux  int^ressaient,  di- 
viSaient  les  villes  et  les  provinces.     Ibid.,  p.  589. 

'  "  The  light,  which  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  shining  — 
das  Ausscheinen  —  of  that  light  in  the  creature-world  are  in- 
separable. The  Birth  of  the  Son  and  the  Creation  of  the  world 
are  one  act."     Stockl.     "Geschichte  der  Philosophie,"  §  3, 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   139 

3.  Although  Eckhart  tried  to  hedge  in  these 
dangerous  tenets  with  various  safeguards  and  fine- 
spun distinctions,  the  people,  in  their  ignorance 
and  enthusiasm,  broke  loose  from  all  restraint  and 
fell  into  deplorable  disorders.  Large  numbers 
formed  themselves  into  societies  having  as  spiritual 
directors  laymen  who  claimed  to  be  initiated  into 
the  secrets  of  this  mystical  union  with  the  God- 
head. This  was  a  condition  of  things  anomalous  as 
it  was  dangerous.  Sometimes,  indeed,  under  this 
lay  direction,  the  people  made  real  spiritual  prog- 
ress, as  did  the  society  known  as  the  Friends  of 
God  under  the  guidance  of  that  mysterious  layman 
who  so  successfully  led  the  celebrated  Tauler  into 
the  way  of  this  mystical  life.'  More  frequently, 
they  went  beyond  all  control  and  became  mere 
fanatics,  as  the  Beguines  and  Regards.*  Tauler 
(i3CX)-i36i)  took  the  yearning  multitude  by  the 
hand  and  led  them  in  the  path  which  he  had  trod- 
den. So  powerful  was  his  eloquence  and  so  great 
the  influence  that  he  wielded,  that  even  at  this  day 
his  name  is  a  magic  wand  capable  of  stirring  the 

6,  p.  494.  Also  10,  p.  495.  "  The  soul,  like  all  things,  pre- 
existed in  God  .  .  .  Immanent  in  the  Divine  Essence,  I  created 
the  world  and  myself."  Ueberweg.  "History  of  Philos- 
ophy," vol.  I.,  ^  106,  in  which  Eckhart's  teaching  is  account- 
ed for  at  length  by  Dr.  Adolf  Lasson.  The  article  in  Stockl  is 
far  more  satisfactory. 

'  See  "Life  of  Tauler,"  prefixed  to  his  Sermons,  edited 
and  translated  into  French  by  M.  Ch.  Ste-Foi.  (Paris  1853). 
Vol.  I.,  p.  7  et  seq. 

*  ••  When  the  organization  was  dissolved  by  Pope  John 
XXII.,  it  numbered  more  than  three  hundred  thousand  in  Ger- 
many alone."  Gorres.  "La  Mystique,"  t.  I.,  p.  131.  They 
were  so  called  from  their  institutor,  Lambert  Begha,  who 
established  the  organization  in  1170. 


140  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

hearts  of  the  descendants  of  the  thousands  along  the 
Rhine,  who  clung  upon  his  lips  and  eagerly  fed 
their  hungering  souls  with  the  words  of  life  that  fell 
from  them.  And  whilst  the  rugged  earnestness  of 
Tauler  pierced  their  hearts,  the  gentle  suavity  of 
Henry  Suso  (1300- 1365),  the  Minnesinger  of  the 
love  of  God,  swayed  them  with  no  less  force  and 
helped  to  dissipate  the  atmosphere  of  false  Mysti- 
cism and  erroneous  doctrines  in  which  they   were 

enveloped. 

VIII. 

I.  To  this  extent  had  Mysticism  become  a  pas- 
sion when  Gerhard  Groote  established  the  Brothers 
of  the  Common  Life.  The  mystical  spirit  entered 
into  their  rule  of  living,  but  in  so  new  and  practical 
a  form  that  they  became  known  as  Brothers  of  the 
New  Devotion,  It  pervades  the  books  they  wrote; 
its  spirit  was  in  the  very  atmosphere  of  their 
schools.  The  children  attending  them  became  im- 
bued with  it.  Amongst  those  children  was  Thomas 
k  Kempis.  He  afterwards  became  a  member  of 
the  Order,  was  ordained  priest,  and  lived  to  the 
advanced  age  of  ninety-one  years.  We  read  noth- 
ing eventful  in  his  life.  Like  the  Venerable  Beda, 
from  his  youth  up  he  had  borne  the  sweet  yoke  of 
religion.  Like  Beda  also,  it  had  been  a  pleasure 
for  him  to  read  and  teach  and  write  and  transcribe 
what  he  found  best  in  sacred  and  profane  literature. 
And  that  the  intellect  might  not  grow  barren  in 
the  mechanical  exercise  of  transcribing  the  thoughts 
of  others,  it  was  made  a  rule  that  the  Brothers 
should  cull,  each  for  himself  and  according  to  his 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  Ul 

taste,  some  of  the  beautiful  sayings  and  maxims  of 
the  Fathers  and  saints,  and  add  thereto  pious  re- 
flections.' This  was  a  labor  of  love  for  Thomas, 
and  in  performing  it  he  was  sowing  and  fertilizing 
the  seeds  of  that  special  book  that  was  to  be  the 
child  of  his  genius. 

2.  Another  source  of  inspiration  for  that  book 
was  the  beautiful  example  of  his  Brothers.  His 
convent  was  a  spiritual  garden  in  which  were  tended 
with  great  care  all  the  virtues  of  the  religious  life. 
He  need  only  remember  and  record.  Not  only  in 
his  great  work,  but  in  the  numerous  lives  of  the 
Brothers  that  he  has  left  us,  he  never  tires  of 
expressing  his  appreciation  of  their  devotion,  regu- 
larity and  spirit  of  faith.  And  they  were  equally 
edified  by  his  amiable  character  and  great  humility. 
They  held  him  in  honor  and  esteem,  and  his  influ- 
ence amongst  them  was  great.*  One  of  the  Breth- 
ren remembers  as  an  event  in  his  life,  how  he  had 
seen  him  and  spoken  with  him.  "  The  Brother 
who  wrote  'The  Imitation'  is  called  Thomas.  .  .  . 
This  writer  was  living  in  1454,  and  I,  Brother  Her- 
man, having  been  sent  to  the  general  chapter  in 
that  year,  spoke  to  him."*  Nor  was  he  less  ap- 
preciated outside  his  convent  walls.  The  Cister- 
cian monk,  Adrien  de  But,  stops  the  chronicle  of 
political  events  to  say  how  he  edified  by  his  writings, 

*  These  collections  were  called  Rafiaria. 

'  "  Among  the  small  and  peaceful  circle  of  the  religious 
Mystics,  no  man  exercised  so  important  an  influence  as 
Thomas  Hamerken  of  Kempen."  Gieseler.  "Compend.  Eccl. 
History."  V.,  p.  73. 

'  Mgr.  }.  B.  Malou.  "  Recherches  sur  le  veritable  auteur 
de  rimitation,"  p.  82. 


142  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

especially  his  masterpiece,  which  the  good  monk 
not  inappropriately  styles  "a  metrical  volume."' 
And  so,  his  fame  has  continued  to  grow  broader, 
ripple  after  ripple,  till  it  fills  the  whole  world.  And 
yet,  he  shrank  from  notoriety ;  he  loved  retirement ; 
he  dreaded  gossip.*  On,  on,  through  the  years  of 
his  long  life,  through  the  vigor  of  youth,  through 
the  maturity  of  manhood,  through  the  gathering 
shadows  of  old  age,  he  plied  his  pen  and  scattered 
broadcast  devout  books.  Let  us  approach  still 
nearer. 

3.  Figure  to  yourselves  a  man  of  less  than 
medium  height,'  rather  stout  in  body,  with  fore- 
head broad,  and  a  strong  Flemish  cast  of  features, 
massive  and  thoughtful,  bespeaking  a  man  of  medi- 
tative habits  ;  his  cheeks  tinged  slightly  brown  ;  his 
large  and  lustrous  eyes  looking  with  a  grave  and 
far-off  look,  as  though  gazing  into  the  world  of 
spiritual  life  in  which  his  soul  dwelt.  This  is 
Thomas  k  Kempis  as  he  appeared  to  his  contem- 

*  Hoc  anno  frater  Thomas  de  Kempis,  de  Monte  Sanctae 
Agnetis  professor  ordinis  regularium  canonicorum,  multos, 
scriptis  suis  divulgatis,  aedificat;  hie  vitam  Sanctae  Lidwigis 
descripsit  et  quoddam  volumen  metrice  sufer  illud:  qui sequitur 
me.  "  Chroniques  relatives  a  I'histoire  de  la  Belgique,"  publiees 
par  M.  le  Baron  Kervyn  de  Lettenhove,  t.  I.  "  The  Imitation," 
as  written  by  A  Kempis  is  both  metrical  and  rhythmical.  This 
is  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Hirsche  after  long  and  careful  study 
of  the  original  MS.  Henry  Sommalius,  in  1599,  first  divided 
each  chapter  into  paragraphs,  and  in  the  seventeenth  century 
several  editors  subdivided  the  paragraphs  into  versicles. 

*  *'  Valde  devotus,  libenter  solus,  et  nunquam  otiosus." 
MS.  11,841,  Bibl.  de  Borgogne,  Brussels,  printed  for  the  first 
time  in  Appendix  to  "  Recherches  sur  le  veritable  auteur  de 
I'Imitation,"  par  Mgr.  J.  B.  Malou,  2me  Ed.,  p.  388. 

""Hie  fuit  brevis  staturae,  sad  magnus  in  virtutibus." 
Ibid. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  143 

poraries.  Still  another  glimpse  of  him  as  he  walks 
and  speaks  with  his  Brothers,  has  been  sketched 
with  a  loving  hand : 

"  This  good  Father,  when  he  was  walking  abroad 
with  some  of  the  Brotherhood,  or  with  some  of 
his  other  friends,  and  suddenly  felt  an  inspiration 
come  upon  him  —  namely,  when  the  Bridegroom 
was  willing  to  communicate  with  the  bride,  that 
is,  when  Jesus  Christ  his  Beloved,  did  call  to  his 
soul  as  His  elect  and  beloved  spouse  —  was  wont 
to  say,  '  My  beloved  brethren,  I  must  now  needs 
leave  you,'  and  so,  meekly  begging  to  be  ex- 
cused, he  would  leave  them,  saying,  'Indeed  it 
behooves  me  to  go ;  there  is  One  expecting  me  in 
my  cell.'  And  so  they  accordingly  granted  his  re- 
quest, took  well  his  excuse  and  were  much  edified 
thereby."  * 

In  this  reverential  manner  was  his  memory  cher- 
ished. We  are  not  surprised  to  learn  that  a  great 
many,  being  attracted  by  his  reputation  for  science 
and  sanctity,  flocked  around  him,  to  cultivate  his 
acquaintance  and  to  pursue  their  studies  under 
his  guidance.' 

4.  What  was  the  inner  life  of  this  attractive 
soul?  What  were  the  trials,  the  struggles  with  self, 
the  temptations  through  which  he  passed?  Surely, 
he  who  is  both  philosopher  and  poet  of  the  interior 
life  in  all  its  phases,  must  have  traversed  the  rugged 
path   leading  up  to  perfection  with  an  observant 

'  Opera  Omnia  Th.  de  Kempis,  ed.  Georg  Pirckhamer, 
Nuremberg  1494.  fol.  XXXV.  Kettlewell,  "  Thomas  i  Kempis 
and  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,"  vol.  I.,  p.  33.  Mgr. 
Malou,  "  Recherches,"  p.  84. 

*  Hardenberg.  MS.  "Life  of  Wessel,"  a  disciple  of 
Thomas  ^  Kempis.  Quoted  bv  Ullman.  "Reformatoren  vor 
der  Reformation,"  2  Bd,  S.  73S,  Eng.  tr.,  vol.  II.,  p.  271. 


144  ESSATS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

eye  for  all  the  dangerous  turns  and  treacherous 
pitfalls  that  lurk  on  the  way.  Above  all,  he  must 
have  loved  much. 

"The  passion,"  says  Michelet,  "which  we  meet 
in  this  work,  is  grand  as  the  object  which  it  seeks ; 
grand  as  the  world  which  it  forsakes." 

And  in  this  love  he  found  strength  to  overcome 
every  obstacle.  In  another  work  he  thus  lays  bare 
his  soul: 

"  Sometimes  my  passions  assailed  me  as  a  whirl- 
wind ;  but  God  sent  forth  his  arrows  and  dissipated 
them.  The  attack  was  often  renewed,  but  God 
was  still  my  support." ' 

And  in  his  great  book  he  occasionally  gives  us 
a  glimpse  of  himself.  Thus  we  see  him  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  religious  career  in  doubt  and  great 
mental  anxiety  as  to  whether  or  no  he  will  persevere. 

"  He  presently  heard  within  him  an  answer  from 
God,  which  said,  '  If  thou  didst  know  it,  what 
wouldst  thou  do?  Do  now,  what  thou  wouldst  do 
then,  and  thou  shall  be  secure. '  And  being  here- 
with comforted  and  strengthened,  he  committed 
himself  wholly  to  the  will  of  God,  and  his  anxious 
wavering  ceased."" 

In  another  place  *  we  find  him  sending  up  cries 
for  strength  and  resignation,  such  as  could  only  come 
from  a  heart  bleeding  and  lacerated  with  wounds 
inflicted  by  calumny  and  humiliation."  But  it  is 
only  a  soul  that  rose  above  the  spites  and  jealousies 

*  "  Soliloquy  of  the  Soul."     See  chaps,  xv.,  xvi.,  xvii. 
'  Bk.  I.,  chap.  XXV.,  2. 

'  Bk.  III.,  chap.  xxix. 

*  Charles  Butler.  Life  prefixed  to  Bishop  Challoner's 
translation  of  "  The  Imitation,"  p.  vii. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   145 

of  life  that  could  speak  the  words  of  comfort  and 
consolation  therein  to  be  found. 

"  Verily,"  hath  it  been  beautifully  said,  "  only  a 
breast  burning  with  pity  —  a  breast  that  hath  never 
wounded  another  breast  —  could  have  offered  that 
incense  to  heaven,  that  dew  to  earth,  which  we  call 
♦The  Imitation"" 

Such  was  the  author.  He  had  learned  to  re- 
press every  inordinate  desire  or  emotion,  until  in 
his  old  age  he  was  content  with  solitude  and  a  book. 
"  I  have  sought  rest  everywhere,"  was  he  wont  to 
say,  "  but  I  have  found  it  nowhere  except  in  a  little 
corner  with  a  little  book."  * 

IX. 

I.  It  is  interesting  to  study  the  literary  struc- 
ture of  "The  Imitation,"  and  note  the  traces  of 
authorship  running  through  it.  We  will  glance  at 
it  for  a  moment.  First  of  all  and  above  all,  the  book 
is  saturated  through  and  through  with  the  Sacred 
Scriptures.  You  can  scarcely  read  a  sentence  that 
does  not  recall  some  passage  now  in  the  Old,  now  in 
the  New  Testament.  It  reflects  their  pure  rays  like 
an  unbroken  mirror.  To  transcribe  the  Bible  had 
been  a  labor  of  love  for  the  author.  A  complete 
copy  of  it  in  his  own  neat  handwriting  is  still  ex- 
tant. Echoes  of  beautiful  passages  from  the 
spiritual  writers  that  went  before  him  reverberate 
through  the  pages  of  this  book  which  is  none  the 
less  original.     The  author  drew  from  St.  Gregory 

'  William  Maccoll  in  Contemporary  Review,  September, 
1866. 

*  Charles  Butler,  loc.  cit.,  p.  8, 
E.  M.— 10 


146  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

the  Great.*  St.  Bernard  seems  to  have  been  a 
special  favorite.'  So  was  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.* 
He  drew  from  St.  Thomas.*  He  drew  from  St. 
Bonaventura."  He  even  drew  from  the  Roman 
Missal.*  He  also  lays  the  pagan  classics  under  con- 
tribution. He  quotes  Aristotle.'  He  quotes  Ovid.' 
He  quotes  Seneca.*  And  there  are  some  remarka-. 
ble  coincidences  in  expression  between  himself  and 
Dante."  He  even  quotes  the  popular  sayings  of 
his  day."  In  a  word,  as  with  the  poet,  whatever 
love  inspired,  no  matter  the  speech  in  which  the 
voice  came,  he  wrote  at  her  dictation." 

2.  In  both  language  and  spirit  the  book  exhales 
the    atmosphere   of    Mysticism    in   which    it   was 

^  Cf.  Gregory,  "  Cura  Pastoralis,"  and  "Imitation,"  bk. 
IV.,  chap.  V. 

*  Cf.  the  Hymn  "Jesu,  dulcis  memoria,"  and  bk.  II., 
chaps,  vii.,  viii. 

3  Cf.  "  Epist."  XL.,  and  bk.  III.,  chap.  viii. 

*  Cf.  Office  for  Corpus  Christi,  and  bk.  IV.,  chap,  ii.,  i.; 
also  chap,  xiii.,  2,  17. 

^  Cf.  the  Hymn  *'  Recordare  Sanctae  Crucis  "  and  bk.  II., 
chap,  xii.,  2.  The  Toulouse  Sermons  attributed  to  St.  Bona- 
ventura,  having  so  many  extracts  from  "The  Imitation,"  are 
no  longer  regarded  as  authentic.  See  Mgr.  Malou.  "  Recher- 
ches  sur  le  veritable  auteur  de  1'  Imitation,"  pp.  198-202. 

*  Cf.  Prayer  for  XVth  Sunday  after  Pentecost,  and  "  Im.," 
bk.  III.,  chap.  Iv.,  6.;  Post.  Com.  IV.  Sunday  in  Advent,  and 
bk.  IV.,  chap.  iv. 

'Aristotle.     "Metaphysics."     I.,  i.,  in  bk.  I.,  chap,  ii.,  i. 

*  Ovid.  Lib.  XIII.  "  de  Remed.  Am."  in  bk.  I.,  chap,  xiii.,  5. 
'  Seneca.  "  Ep."  VII.,  in  bk.  I.,'chap.  xx.,  2. 

10  Cf.  Dante.  "  Inferno."  Canto  III.  and  Canto  VI.,  with  bk. 
L,  chap.  xxiv. 

"  Bk.  II.,  chap,  ix.,  i.     The  expression  is: 

"  Satis  suaviter  equitat, 
Quem  gratia  Dei  portat." 

**  lo  mi  son  un  che  quando 

Amore  spira,  noto,  e  in  quel  modo 
Ch'ei  detta  dentro,  vo'  significando.  —  Dante. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  147 

conceived  and  written.  Its  very  terms  are  the 
terms  of  Mysticism  and  if  we  would  under- 
stand the  book  thoroughly  we  must  make 
tangible  to  ourselves  this  mystical  state.  In  the 
human  soul  there  is  and  has  been  at  all  times  a 
strong  and  irrepressible  yearning  after  the  higher 
spiritual  things  of  the  unseen  Universe.  It  is  not 
given  to  all  to  attain  its  dizziest  heights.  It  may 
not  even  be  well  for  all  to  aim  thereat.  But  it  is 
something  to  be  proud  of,  to  know  that  our 
humanity  has  reached  that  state  in  its  elect  few. 
And  what  is  the  mystical  state?  It  is  a  striving  of 
the  soul  after  union  with  the  Divinity.  It  is  there- 
fore a  turning  away  from  sin  and  all  that 
could  lead  to  sin,  and  a  raising  up  of  the 
soul  above  all  created  things,  "  transcending 
every  ascent  of  every  holy  height,  and  leaving 
behind  all  Divine  lights  and  sounds  and  heavenly 
discoursings,  and  passing  into  that  Darkness  where 
He  is  who  is  above  all  things."*  In  this  state  the 
soul  is  passively  conscious  that  she  lives  and 
breathes  in  the  Godhead,  and  asks  neither  to  speak 
nor  think.  Her  whole  happiness  is  to  be.  She  has 
found  absolute  Goodness,  absolute  Truth,  and 
absolute  Beauty  ;  she  knows  it  and  feels  it  and  rests 
content  in  the  knowledge.  She  seeks  nothing 
beyond.  She  has  left  far  behind  her  all  practical 
and  speculative  habits.  Her  faculties  are  hushed  in 
holy  awe  at  the  nearness  of  the  Divine  Presence.' 

*  Dionysius  Areopagita.  '*  DeMystica  Theologia."  Cap. 
i.,  4  3,  t.  I.  Col.  999.     '•  Patrol.  Graecae.     Ed.  Migne,  t.  III. 

'  See  Tauler.  Sermon  for  the  Sunday  after  Epiphany ; 
trad.  Ste-Foi.  t.  I.,  p.  130. 


148  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

Memory  has  ceased  to  minister  to  her ;  Fancy  and 
imagination  walk  at  a  distance  and  in  silence,  fear- 
ing to  obtrude  themselves  upon  the  Unimagined 
Infinite;  Reason  is  prostrate  and  abashed  before 
the  Incomprehensible;  Understanding  remains 
lulled  in  adoration  before  the  Unknowable,  She  is 
overshadowed  by  the  intense  splendor  of  the  Divine 
Glory,  and  filled  —  thrilled  through  and  through  — 
with  the  dread  Presence  ;  she  is  raised  above  the 
plane  of  our  common  human  feelings  and  sympa- 
thies into  the  highest  sphere  of  thought  and  love 
and  adoration  attainable  in  this  life,  and  is  thus 
given  a  foretaste  of  Heaven.  In  this  state  the  soul 
apprehends  with  clearness  mysteries  that  are 
entirely  beyond  her  ordinary  power  of  conception. 
Such  was  the  experience  of  a  Francis  of  Assisi,  a 
Henry  Suso,  a  Tauler,  a  Loyola,  a  Teresa  of  Jesus. 
But  this  experience  became  theirs  only  after  they 
had  passed  through  much  tribulation  of  spirit,  and 
their  souls  had  been  purified ;  for  it  is  only  to  the 
clean  of  heart  that  it  is  given  to  become  intimately 
united  with  God  in  this  manner.  Men  of  proud 
thought  and  vain  desire  have  attempted  without 
this  purification  to  attain  that  state ;  but  invariably 
they  became  lost  in  illusions,  were  confounded,  and 
fell  into  the  deepest  follies.  Therefore  it  is  that 
this  union  is  safely  sought  only  through  the 
Redeemer.  And  so  we  find  the  books  attributed  to 
the  Areopagite  make  the  Chalice  of  the  Redeemer 
the  central  point  of  all  Christian  mysteries  ;  the 
Chalice  being  according  to  them  the  symbol  of 
Providence  which    penetrates    and    preserves    all 


_   CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  149 

things.'  And  this  symbol  passes  down  the  ages, 
gathering  around  it  feats  of  chivalry  and  love  and 
bravery  —  adventure  and  prowess  which  are  also 
symbolic  —  and  men  speak  of  it  as  the  Holy  Grail, 
which  only  such  as  the  suffering  Tituriel  and  the 
pure  Galahad  are  permitted  to  behold.*  What  is  it 
all  but  a  beautiful  allegory  typifying  the  struggles 
of  the  devout  soul  before  it  is  permitted  to  com- 
mune with  God  in  this  mystical  union  ? 

X. 

I.  Thomas  k  Kempis  knows  no  other  way  by 
which  to  lead  the  Christian  soul  to  the  heights  of 
perfection  and  union  with  the  Divinity  than  the 
rugged  road  trodden  by  Jesus.  The  opening 
words  of  "  The  Imitation  "  strike  the  keynote  with 
no  uncertain  tone : 

"//^  that  followeth  Me  walketh  not  in  darkness"* 
saith  the  Lord.  These  are  tlte  words  of  Christ,  by 
which  we  are  taught  to  imitate  His  life  and  manners, 
if  we  would  he  truly  enlightened  and  be  delivered 
from  all  blindness  of  heart.  .  .  .  Whosoever  would 
fully  and  feelingly  understand  the  words  of  Christ, 
must  endeavor  to  conform  his  life  wholly  to  the  life 
of  Christ."  * 

In  this  manner  does  the  author  give  us  purely  and 
simply,  without  gloss  or  comment,  the  spirituality 

*  Crater  igitur  cum  sit  rotundus  et  apertus,  symbolum  est 
generalis  providentiae  quae  principio  fineque  caret  atque  omnia 
continet  penetratque.  Dion.  Areop.  "Ep."  IX. '*  Tito  Epis- 
copo,"  ^  III.  "  Patrol.  Graecae."  Ed.  Migne,  t.  III.  Col.  mo. 

'  The  symbol  of  the  Chalice  is  older  than  Christianity.  It 
was  adopted  from  the  Dionysian  mysteries  of  the  Greeks  and 

fiven  a  Christian  meaning.     See  Gorres.     "  La  Mystique,"  t. 
,  p.  78. 

*  John  viii.,  12. 

*  "Imitation,"  bk.  I.,  chap,  i.,  a. 


150  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

of  the  Gospel.  He  does  not  flatter  human  nature. 
He  merely  points  out  the  narrow  and  rugged  road 
to  Calvary.  The  "  royal  way  of  the  holy  Cross " 
is  the  only  safe  way  : 

"Go  where  thou  wilt,  seek  whatsoever  thou  wilt, 
thou  shalt  not  find  a  higher  way  above,  nor  a  safer 
way  below,  than  the  way  of  the  holy  Cross.''  * 

And  here  the  pious  author,  in  descanting  on 
the  merits  of  the  Cross,  becomes  truly  poetical : 

"In  the  Cross  is  salvation ;  in  the  Cross  is  life;  in 
the  Cross  is  protection  against  our  enemies ;  in  the 
Cross  is  infusion  of  heavenly  sweetness ;  in  the 
Cross  is  strength  and  mind ;  in  the  Cross  is  joy  of 
spirit ;  in  the  Cross  is  the  height  of  virtue ;  in  the 
Cross  is  the  perfection  of  sanctity.  There  is  no  sal- 
vation of  the  soul,  no  hope  of  everlasting  life,  but  in 
the  Cross.  Take  up  therefore  thy  Cross  and  follow 
Jesus  and  thou  shalt  go  into  life  everlasting.''* 

Thus  it  is  that  in  the  language  of  A  Kempis 
the  Cross  symbolizes  all  Christian  virtue ;  and 
bearing  one's  trials  and  troubles  with  patience  and 
resignation  is  walking  on  the  royal  road  of  the 
Cross.     It  supersedes  the  symbol  of  the  Chalice. 

2.  For  the  student,  "  The  Imitation  "  is  laden 
with  beautiful  lessons.  The  pious  author  must 
have  had  his  own  scholars  in  his  mind's  eye  in  pen- 
ning many  a  passage.  He  never  tires  of  recalling 
\o  them  that  there  is  something  better  than  vain 
words  and  dry  disputations. 

»  Bk.  II.,  chap.  xii. 
*  Ibid. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  151 

"  Surely  great  words  do  not  make  a  man  holy  and 
just.  .  .  .'  Many  words  do  not  satisfy  the  soul 
.  .  .  .*  Meddle  not  with  things  too  high  for  thee  ; 
but  read  such  thi?igs  as  may  rather  yield  compunc- 
tion to  thy  heart,  than  occupation  to  thy  head."  * 

He  distinguishes  between  the  reading  that  goes 
home  to  the  heart,  and  that  which  is  merely  a  mat- 
ter of  occupation.  The  distinction  is  an  important 
one.  It  defines  the  functions  of  the  Spiritual 
Sense.  One  to  whom  I  have  already  introduced 
you,  draws  the  same  line.  I  give  you  his  words. 
Notice  how  closely  the  philosopher  and  man  of  the 
world,  writing  four  centuries  after,  coincides  with 
the  monk. 

"I  am,"  says  Maine  de  Biran,  "as  agitated  by 
my  books  and  my  own  ideas,  as  when  occupied 
with  worldly  matters  or  launched  in  the  vortex  of 
Parisian  life.  ...  I  fancy  that  I  am  going  to  dis- 
cover my  moral  and  intellectual  welfare,  rest  and 
internal  satisfaction  of  mind,  the  truth  I  seek,  in 
every  book  that  I  scan  and  consult ;  as  though 
these  things  were  not  within  me,  down  in  the  very 
depths  of  my  being,  where  with  sustained  and  pen- 
etrating glance,  I  should  look  for  them,  instead  of 
gliding  rapidly  over  what  others  have  thought,  or 
even  what  I  myself  have  thought.  .  .  .  My 
conscience  reproaches  me  with  not  having  thor- 
oughly sounded  the  depths  of  life,  with  not  having 
cultivated  its  most  earnest  parts,  and  with  being 
too  occupied  with  those  amusements  that  enable 
one  to  pass  imperceptibly  from  time  to  eternity."  * 

*  Bk.  I.,  chap,  i.,  3. 
'  Ibid.,  chap,  ii.,  3. 

*  Ibid.,  chap,  xx.,  i. 

*  yournal  Intime.  Apud  Nicolas.  Etude  sur  Maine  de 
Biran,  p.  54. 


152  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

In  good  truth,  men  may  go  through  life,  dis- 
coursing upon  the  things  of  life,  formulating  their 
views  of  the  diverse  subjects  that  call  for  definite 
opinion ;  and  yet,  for  want  of  this  introspection,  this 
self-communion,  this  thoughtfulness  of  God's  pres- 
ence within  them,  they  may  indeed  possess  many 
and  varied  accomplishments,  but  these  are  all  of 
the  outward  man.  The  inner  man  is  starved  to  a 
skeleton.  This  is  why  all  great  thinkers,  all  the 
founders  of  religious  orders  as  well  as  of  schools  of 
philosophy,  Pythagoras  and  Socrates  as  well  as 
Benedict  and  Loyola,  have  laid  stress  upon  the  cul- 
ture of  this  interior  spirit.  It  is  not  merely  the 
opinion  of  a  pious  author;  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel,  made  the  wisdom  of  humanity. 

3.  Again,  the  author  lays  down  the  conditions 
under  which  study  may  be  pursued  with  advantage. 
He  shows  the  greater  responsibility  attached  to 
human  knowledge,  and  counsels  the  students  to  be 
humble. 

"  TAe  more  thou  knowest,  and  the  better  thou 
under standest,  the  more  strictly  shalt  thou  be  judged, 
unless  thy  life  be  also  the  more  holy.  Be  not  there- 
fore elated  in  thine  own  mind  because  of  any  art  or 
science,  but  rather  let  the  knowledge  given  thee  make 
thee  afraid.  If  thou  thinkest  that  thou  under  stand- 
est and  knowest  much  ;  yet  know  that  tJiere  be  many 
m.ore  things  zvhich  thou  knowest  not.'' ' 

Bear  in  mind  that  the  author  is  not  simply  in- 
culcating the  modesty  and  diffidence  that  belong 
to    every    well-educated    person,    and    that     may 

^  Bk.  I.,  chap,  ii,,  3. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   153 

accompany  great  intellectual  pride.    He  goes  deeper, 
and  insists  upon  true  humility.' 

"  If  thou  wilt  know  and  learn  anything  profit- 
ably, desire  to  be  unknown  and  little  esteemed.  This 
is  the  highest  and  most  profitable  lesson  :  truly  to 
know  and  despise  ourselves^  ' 

4.  The  pious  author  is  no  less  earnest  in  coun- 
seling the  student  to  be  simple  and  pure. 

"  By  two  wings  a  man  is  lifted  up  from  things 
earthly,  namely,  by  Simplicity  and  Purity.  Sim- 
plicity ought  to  be  in  our  intention ;  Pu,rity  in  our 
ajfections.  Simplicity  doth  tend  towards  God ;  Pur- 
ity doth  apprehend  and  taste  him.  .  .  .  If  thy 
heart  were  sincere  and  upright,  then  would  every 
creature  be  unto  thee  a  living  mirror,  and  a  book  of 
holy  doctrine.  There  is  no  creature  so  small  and 
abject,  that  it  representeth  not  the  goodness  of  God. 
If  thou  wert  inwardly  good  and  pure,  then  wouldst 
thou  be  able  to  see  and  understand  all  things  well 
without  impeditnent.  A  pure  heart  penetrateth 
heaven  and  hell."  * 

Doctrine  as  beautiful  as  it  is  true.  Only  to  the 
clean  of  heart  is  it  given  to  see  God  in  heaven. 
Only  to  the  clean  of  heart  is  it  given  to  recognize 
the  splendor  of  His  glory  in  the  beautiful  things 
that  He  has  created.  The  poetry  and  chivalry  of 
the  Middle  Ages  vie  with  each  other  in  extolling 
this  pearl  among  the  virtues.  Percival's  purity  of 
heart  wins  for  him  the  rare  privilege  of  beholding 

*  Cardinal  Newman,  in  one  of  his  most  beautiful  Dis- 
courses, shows  how  modesty  accompanied  by  pride  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  Christian  virtue  of  humility  in  the  modern 
world.  "  Idea  of  a  University."  Discourse  VIII.,  §  9,  pp. 
354-358. 

'  Bk.  I.,  chap,  ii.,  3,  4. 

•  Bk.  II.,  chap,  iv.,3,3. 


154  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

the  Holy  Grail.  Launcelot  fails  in  his  quest  be- 
cause of  his  sin.  Sir  Galahad's  virgin  heart  makes 
him  tenfold  strong  against  his  foes : 

"My  good  blade  carves  the  casques  of  men, 
My  tough  lance  thrusteth  sure, 
My  strength  is  as  the  strength  of  ten 
Because  my  heart  is  fure.'^^ 

XI. 

I.  The  philosophy  of  "The  Imitation  "  may  be 
summed  up  in  two  words.  It  is  a  philosophy  of  Light 
and  a  philosophy  of  Life :  the  Light  of  Truth  and 
the  Life  of  Grace.  Both  the  one  and  the  other,  A 
Kempis  seeks  in  their  source  and  fountain  head.  He 
does  not  separate  them.  It  is  only  in  the  union  of 
both  that  man  attains  his  philosophic  ideal.  Vain 
words  and  dry  speculations,  scholastic  wrangling 
and  religious  controversy,  may  furnish  food  for 
man's  vanity,  but  they  are  unable  to  nourish  his 
soul.  And  so,  the  devout  author,  with  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  with  Augustine  and  Aquinas,  ascends 
to  the  Incarnate  Word  —  the  Divine  Logos  —  as 
the  source  whence  proceeds  all  truth  both  natural 
and  revealed,  for  the  criterion  and  the  ideal  of 
human  knowledge.  Here  he  finds  unity  and  har- 
mony. And  if  human  opinions'oppose  one  another, 
those  alone  can  be  true  which  are  compatible  with 
the  revealed  and  certain  dogmas  of  the  Church.' 

^  Tennyson,  "Sir  Galahad." 

'  Human  reason  is  feeble  and  may  be  deceived,  but  true 
faith  cannot  be  deceived.  All  reason  and  natural  search  ought 
to  follow  faith,  not  to  go  before  it,  nor  to  break  in  upon  it. 
Bk,  IV.,  chap,  xviii.,  4,  5. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   155 

Therefore,  he  begs  the  student  to  hush  the  clash  of 
systems,  and  seek  above  and  beyond  all  system  and 
all  caviling  the  truth  pure  and  simple  as  it  eman- 
ates from  the  Godhead.  In  his  day  the  clashing  of 
scholastic  opinion  was  loud  and  fierce,  and  the  din 
of  the  Schools  so  filled  the  air  that  he  steps  aside 
from  his  usual  course  of  ignoring  the  issues  and 
contests  of  the  outside  world  and  asks:  "What 
matters  it  to  us  about  genera  and  species?"  Upon 
the  solution  of  this  problem  hinged  the  endless  dis- 
putations between  Nominalism  and  Realism  ever 
since  Roscelin  revived  the  issue  nearly  four  centuries 
previously.  The  students  adopted  one  or  other  ac- 
cording to  their  nationality.  In  the  University  of 
Prague  the  Bohemian  students  were  Realists, 
whilst  those  of  Germany  were  Nominalists.  And 
when  a  crisis  occurs  in  the  affairs  of  that  institution, 
we  see  twenty-four  thousand  of  the  German  Nom- 
inalists abandon  its  halls  and  establish  a  new 
University  in  Leipsig.' 

2.  Thomas  k  Kempis  has  in  his  book  no  place 
for  these  strifes.  In  a  philosophic  poem,  which  is 
only  less  sublime  than  that  with  which  St.  John 
opens  his  Gospel,  because  it  is  an  echo  thereof,  the 
devout  author  lays  down  the  doctrine  of  truth  that 
runs  through  his  book,  even  as  it  has  been  the 
actuating  principle  of  his  life: 


*  Cantu.  "  Hist.  Univ.,"  t.  XII.,  p.  293.  Some  saj 40,000. 
See  Lenfant.  "Hibt.  de  la  Guerre  des  Hussites,"  Utrecht. 
1731,  pp.  59,  60,  and  '*  Histoire  duConcilede  Constance,"  t.  I., 
p.  30,  31.  Of  course,  the  immediate  cause  of  the  difficulty  was 
the  retrenchment  of  certain  privileges  of  the  German  professors 
and  students  bj  Wenceslaus  at  the  instigation  of  John  Huss. 


156  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

"  Happy  is  he  whom  Truth  by  itself  doth  teach^ 
not  by  figures  and  words  that  pass  away,  but  as  it 
is  in  itself.  Our  own  opinion  and  our  own  sense  do 
often  deceive  us,  and  they  discern  but  little.  What 
availeth  it  to  cavil  and  dispute  much  about  dark  and 
hidden  things,  for  ignorance  of  which  we  shall  not  be 
reproved  at  the  day  of  judgment  ?  It  is  a  great  folly 
to  neglect  the  things  that  are  profitable  and  necessary, 
and  to  choose  to  dwell  upon  that  which  is  curious  and 
hurtful.  We  have  eyes  and  see  not.  And  what  have 
we  to  do  with  genera  and  species  ?  He  to  whom  the 
Eternal  Word  speaketh  is  delivered  from  many  an 
opinion.  From  one  word  are  all  things^  and  all 
things  utter  one  Word ;  and  this  is  the  Beginning 
zuhich  also  speaketh  unto  us.^  No  man  ivithout  that 
Word  under  standeth  or  judgeth  rightly.  He  to  whom 
all  things  are  one,  he  who  reduceth  all  things  to  one 
and  seeth  all  things  in  one,  may  enjoy  a  quiet  mind, 
and  remain  at  peace  in  God.  O  God,  who  art  Truth 
itself,  m,ake  m.e  one  zvith  Thee  in  everlasting  love. 
It  wearieth  m.e  often  to  read  and  hear  many  things: 
in  Thee  is  all  that  I  would  have  and  can  desire. 
Let  all  teachers  hold  their  peace;  let  all  creatures  be 
silent  in  Thy  light;  speak  Thou  alone  unto  me." ' 

Can  you  imagine  a  sublimer  passage  coming 
from  a  human  hand  ? 

3.  This  is  not  a  system  of  philosophy.  Like 
Pascal  and  St.  Augustine,  A  Kempis  soars  above 
system,  and  in  the  mystical  language  so  well  known 
and  understood  in  his  day,  he  reduces  all  philosophy 
to  this  principle  of  seeing  things  in  the  light  ema- 
nating from  the  Word.  "  From  one  Word  are  all 
things,  and  all  things  utter  one  Word.     .     .     .     No 

^  Principium,  qui  et  loquor  vobis.     St,  John  viii.,  35. 
'  Bk.  I.,  chap.  iii. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  157 

man  without  that  Word  understandeth  or  judgeth 
rightly!'  In  vain  would  you  search  heaven  or 
earth  for  a  more  elevating,  more  correct,  or  more 
fruitful  principle  in  philosophy.  Was  the  author 
Realist?  Was  he  Nominalist?  He  was  neither. 
Not  that  he  was  not  interested  in  philosophic  dis- 
cussions ;  for  did  he  not  take  a  keen  interest  in 
them  he  never  would  have  penned  those  sublime 
pages.  But  his  genius  sought  greater  freedom  than 
it  could  have  found  in  any  system.  No  sooner  is 
one  committed  to  a  school,  than  one  has  to  pare 
down,  or  exaggerate,  or  suppress  altogether  truths 
and  facts  to  tally  with  the  system  taught  by  the 
school.  Neither  truth  nor  fact  are  the  outcome  of 
system  or  school ;  prior  to  either,  both  truth  and  fact 
existed.  Systems  and  schools  in  confessing  them- 
selves such,  acknowledge  by  the  very  fact  that  they 
do  not  deal  with  truth  whole  and  entire  as  truth, 
but  with  certain  aspects  of  truth  seen  from  a  given 
point  of  view.  They  may  be  good,  they  may  even 
be  necessary,  as  aids  in  acquiring  truth ;  but  they 
are  not  to  be  identified  with  it.  They  are,  so  to 
speak,  the  scaffoldings  by  which  the  edifice  of  truth 
may  be  constructed,  and  as  such  are  to  be  laid  aside 
as  soon  as  the  structure  is  completed.  In  this 
spirit  was  it  that  Thomas  k  Kempis  thought  and 
worked. 

4.  Was  the  author  opposed  to  learning  ?  The 
many  expressions  in  which  he  speaks  so  lightly  of 
purely  human  knowledge  or  scholastic  disputations, 
would  lead  one  to  think  that  he  was  inclined  to 
disparage  Ml  such.     Nothing  was  farther  from  hi» 


158  MSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

intention.  His  whole  life  was  devoted  to  the  work 
of  education.  He  had  formed  and  sent  forth,  well 
equipped,  many  distinguished  pupils  and  disciples.* 
He  never  lost  his  taste  for  books.  To  transcribe 
and  spread  abroad  good  books  both  in  sacred  and 
profane  learning  had  been  his  delight.  In  one  of  his 
sermons  he  exclaims,  *'  Blessed  are  the  hands  of 
such  transcribers !  Which  of  the  writings  of  our 
ancestors  would  now  be  remembered,  if  there  had 
been  no  pious  hands  to  transcribe  them?"  "  But  as 
"  The  Imitation"  treats  of  the  finite  and  the  temporal 
in  their  relations  with  the  infinite  and  the  eternal, 
naturally  all  things  purely  human,  though  not  in 
themselves  insignificant,  suffer  by  comparison.  In 
this  sense  does  he  define  his  position :  "  Learning, 
science — scientia — is  not  to  be  blamed,  nor  the  mere 
knowledge  of  anything  whatsoever,  for  that  is  good 
in  itself  and  ordained  of  God ;  but,"  he  adds,  looking 
at  things  from  his  elevated  point  of  view,  and  in  all 
truth  may  he  say  it,  "  a  good  conscience  and  a  vir- 
tuous life  are  always  to  be  preferred  before  it!' 
Not  the  knowledge  he  condemns,  but  the  pride,  the 
vanity,  the  worldliness  that  are  sometimes  found  in 

1  UUmann  says:  "He  encouraged  susceptible  youths  to 
the  zealous  prosecution  of  their  studies,  and  even  to  the  ac- 
quisition of  a  classical  education.  Seyeral  of  the  most  meri- 
torious restorers  of  ancient  literature  went  forth  from  his  quiet 
cell,  and  he  lived  to  see  in  his  old  age  his  scholars,  Rudolph 
Lange,  Count  Maurice  of  Spiegelberg,  Louis  Dringenberg, 
Antony  Liber,  and  above  all,  Rudolph  Agricola  and  Alexander 
Hegius  laboring  with  success  for  the  revival  of  the  sciences  in 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands.  Accordingly  Thomas  was  not 
without  scientific  culture  himself  or  the  power  of  inspiring  a 
taste  for  it  in  others."  "  Ref ormatoren  vor  der  Reformation." 
Bd.  IL  loc.  cit.     Eng.  tr.,  vol.  IL,  p.  135. 

*  Sermon  on  the  text  :  "Christus  scribit  in  terra." 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  159 

its  train.  "  Because  many  endeavor  rather  to  get 
knowledge  than  to  live  well,  they  are  often  deceived, 
and  reap  either  none  or  but  little  fruit"  In  like 
manner,  the  author  places  true  greatness,  not  in 
great  intellectual  attainments,  but  rather  in  g^reat 
love  and  humility :  "  He  is  truly  great  that  hath 
great  love.  He  is  truly  great  that  is  little  in  himself 
and  that  maketh  no  account  of  any  height  of 
honor."  ' 

XII. 

I.  Here  we  find  ourselves  at  the  second  word 
in  which  the  philosophy  of  "  The  Imitation "  is 
summed  up.  It  is  not  only  the  Light  of  Truth  ;  it  is 
also  the  Life  of  Grace.  This  life  consists  in  the 
practice  of  the  Christian  virtues;  the  practice  of  the 
Christian  virtues  leads  up  to  union  with  Christ ;  and 
union  with  Christ  is  consummated  in  the  Holy 
Eucharist.  Such  is  the  author's  philosophy  of  life, 
and  in  its  development  does  his  genius  especially 
glow.  He  is  mystical,  eloquent,  sublime.  He 
soars  into  the  highest  regions  of  truth  in  which 
meet  both  poetry  and  philosophy.  Following  in  the 
footsteps  of  Christ,  heeding  His  words,  living  in  in- 
timate union  with  Him,  loving  Him  with  a  love 
that  counts  no  sacrifice  too  great,  trampling  under 
foot  all  things  displeasing  to  Him,  bearing  one's 
burden  cheerfully  for  His  sake  —  such  is  the  life  of 
the  soul  as  revealed  in  this  wonderful  book.  And 
the  author  lays  stress  on  the  all-important  truth 
that  this  life  should  primarily  be  built  upon  doctrine. 

»  Bk.  I.,  chap.  iii. 


160  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

Conscience  must  be  instructed  and  trained  to  form 
correct  decisions : 

^^  My  words  are  spirit  and  life,  and  not  to  be 
weighed  by  the  understanding  of  man.  .  .  .  Write 
thou  My  words  in  thy  heart,  and  meditate  diligently 
on  them.,  for  in  time  of  temptation  they  will  be  very 
needful  for  thee.''    .    .   / 

Then  love  steps  in  and  fructifies  the  soul  and 
makes  it  bear  good  actions,  actions  acceptable  and 
pleasing  to  God.  It  is  the  vital  principle  energizing 
the  world  of  Grace.  And  here  the  author  bursts 
forth  into  a  canticle  of  love  that  finds  in  every  soul 
a  responsive  chord : 

"  Love  is  a  great  thing,  yea,  a  great  and  thorough 
good.  .  .  .  Nothing  is  sweeter  than  love,  nothing 
more  courageous,  nothitig  higher,  nothing  wider,  noth- 
ing more  pleasant,  nothing  fuller  nor  better  in  heaven 
and  earth  ;  because  Love  is  born  of  God,  and  can  rest 
but  in  God  above  all  created  things!' 

But  you  must  read  the  whole  poem  to  under- 
stand and  taste  its  great  worth."  And  then,  note 
how  this  canticle  of  love  is  followed  by  a  more 
practical  commentary  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue 
between  Christ  and  the  soul,  all  written  with  the 
most  consummate  art : 

"  Christ.  My  son  thou  art  -not  yet  a  courageous 
and  wise  lover. 

Soul.      Wherefore  sayest  Thou  this,  O  Lord? 

Christ.  Because  for  a  slight  opposition  thou 
givest  over  thy  undertakings,  and  too  eagerly  seekest 
consolation.     A  courageous  lover  standeth  firm,  in 

^  Bk.  III.,  chap,  iii,,  i.,  4. — Ibid.,  chap,  iv.,  3. 
«  Bk.  III.,  chap.  V. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.  161 

temptation,  and  giveth  no  credit  to  the  crafty  per- 
suasions of  the  enemy.  As  I  please  him  in  prosperity, 
so  in  adversity  am  I  not  unpleasing  to  him.  A  wise 
lover  regards  not  so  much  the  gift  of  him.  who  loves 
him,  as  the  love  of  the  giver."  ' 

2.  Forthwith,  the  loving  soul  is  instructed  in 
the  diverse  ways  of  guarding  and  preserving  grace 
and  virtue,  of  overcoming  temptations,  of  fleeing 
and  contemning  the  world,  of  trying  to  be  meek 
and  lowly  and  forbearing,  and  of  seeking  intimate 
union  with  the  Beloved.  The  inclinations  of 
nature,  the  windings  and  subterfuges  of  passion,  the 
dangers  from  within  oneself  and  the  troubles  and 
annoyances  that  come  from  without,  are  all  treated 
with  a  terseness,  clearness,  simplicity  and  unction 
that  are  not  met  with  outside  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures from  which  they  are  reflected.  But  the 
devout  soul  is  especially  to  seek  strength  and  com- 
fort and  consolation  in  union  with  Christ  in  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Holy  Eucharist.  It  contains 
food  for  the  hungering,  healing  for  the  sick ;  it  is 
the  fountain  at  which  the  weary  and  parched  soul 
may  slake  her  thirst ;  it  is  the  fruition  of  all  life,  the 
goal  of  all  struggle,  the  crowning  of  all  efTort. 
Hear  how  beautifully  the  pious  author  expresses 
the  soul's  great  need  for  this  saving  food : 

"  Whilst  I  am  detained  in  the  prison  of  this  body,  I 
acknowledge  myself  to  stand  in  need  of  two  things,  to 
wit,  food  and  light.  Unto  me,  then,  thus  weak  and 
helpless  Thou  hast  given  Thy  Sacred  Body  for  the 
nourishment  both   of  my  soul  and  body;  and   Thy 

•  Ibid.,  chap.  vi. 
E.  M.— II 


162  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Word  Thou  hast  set  as  a  light  unto  my  feet.  With- 
out these  two  I  should  not  be  able  to  live,  for  the  Word 
of  God  is  the  light  of  my  soul,  and  Thy  Sacrament 
the  bread  of  life.  .  .  .  Thanks  be  unto  Thee,  O 
Thou  Creator  and  Redeemer  of  mankind,  who  to  mani- 
fest Thy  love  to  the  whole  world,  hast  prepared  a  great 
supper,  wherein  Thou  hast  set  before  us  to  be  eaten, 
not  the  typical  lamb,  but  Thy  most  Sacred  Body  and 
Blood,  rejoicing  all  the  faithful  with  this  holy  ban- 
quet, and  replenishing  them  to  the  full  with  the  cup 
of  salvation  in  which  are  all  the  delights  of  paradise; 
and  the  holy  angels  do  feast  with  us,  but  yet  with  a 
more  happy  sweetness." ' 

3.  Thus  it  is  that  heaven  and  earth  centre  in 
this  Sacrament.  All  the  yearnings  of  the  devout 
soul  for  union  with  the  Godhead  find  their  consum- 
mation in  the  worthy  reception  of  our  Lord  in  this 
Sacrament  of  His  love.  Every  act  of  virtue  is  an 
act  of  preparation  for  its  reception  in  the  future  and 
of  thanksgiving  for  past  Communions.  And  so  the 
Holy  Eucharist  becomes  the  central  object  of  all 
spiritual  life.  All  this  is  developed  with  great  in- 
genuity in  the  fourth  book  of  "  The  Imitation." 
There  are  several  editions  with  this  book  omitted. 
Those  making  the  omission  little  think  that  they 
are  losing  sight  of  the  principle  and  the  motives 
underlying  the  other  books.  ,But  so  it  is.  They 
are  constructing  an  arch  without  a  keystone.  They 
are  giving  us  the  play  of  Hamlet  with  the  parts  of 
Hamlet  omitted.  They  are  indeed  still  distribut- 
ing good  and  wholesome  thoughts;  but  at  the  same 
time  they  are  destroying  the  unity  of  the  book  and 

'  Bk.  IV.,  chap.,  xi.,  4,  5. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   163 

mistaking  its  philosophy.  It  is  no  longer  Thomas 
k  Kempis ;  it  is  Thomas  k  Kempis  diluted  and 
seasoned  to  suit  individual  palates. 

4.  A  recent  writer  equally  mistaken  as  to  the 
importance  of  the  Fourth  Book  as  a  clue  to  the 
others,  imputed  to  the  pious  author  motives  which 
he  would  have  repudiated,  and  assigned  his  book  a 
purpose  for  which  it  was  never  intended. 

"Its  quick  celebrity,"  this  writer  tells  us,  "is  a 
proof  how  profoundly  ecclesiastical  influence  had 
been  affected,  for  its  essential  intention  was  to  enable 
the  pious  to  cultivate  their  devotional  feelings  with- 
out the  intervention  of  the  clergy.  .  .  .  The  celeb- 
rity of  this  book  was  rather  dependent  on  a  profound 
distrust  everywhere  felt  in  the  clergy  both  as  regards 
morals  and  intellect." ' 

The  assertion  is  gratuitous.  There  was  nothing 
in  the  life  or  character  of  the  author  to  warrant  the 
statement.  It  is  contradicted  by  the  work  itself. 
No  man  speaks  more  reverently  of  the  functions  of 
the  Altar,  or  holds  in  greater  esteem  the  dignity 
of  the  priesthood  than  does  this  same  Thomas  k 
Kempis,  himself  a  worthy  priest. 

"  Great  is  the  dignity  of  priests,  to  whom  that  is 
given  which  is  not  granted  to  angels;  for  priests  alone, 
rightly  ordained  in  the  Church,  have  power  to  cele- 
brate and  consecrate  the  Body  of  Christ.     .     .     ."  * 


*  Draper.  "  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,"  p.  470. 
Mr.  Lecky  calls  this  work  "extremely  remarkable."  "History 
of  European  Morals,"  vol.  I.,  p.  105.  The  writer  has  found 
it  remarkable  in  its  systematic  efforts  at  misreading  history  and 
misinterpreting  events. 

»  Bk.  IV.,  chap,  v.,  5. 


164  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

And  he  thus  concludes  his  beautiful  eulogy  on 
the  priest  at  the  altar : 

"  When  a  priest  celebrates,  he  honors  God,  he 
rejoices  the  angels,  he  edifies  the  Church,  he  helps 
the  living,  he  obtains  rest  for  the  dead,  and  makes 
himself  partaker  of  all  good  things  y ' 

Thus  it  is  that  Thomas  places  the  priest  between 
God  and  the  people  as  their  mediator  through  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  Surely  he  could  establish  no 
stronger  bond  of  union  between  clergy  and  laity. 
Where,  then,  is  the  distrust  of  which  this  writer 
speaks  ?  You  may  search  the  book  from  cover  to 
cover  and  you  will  seek  in  vain  for  a  single  word 
tending  by  any  manner  of  means,  directly  or  in- 
directly, to  promote  or  widen  the  estrangement  of 
the  clergy  from  the  laity.  Another  writer,  a 
Protestant,  regarded  Thomas  k  Kempis  in  this 
same  relation,  but  his  conclusion  was  the  very  re- 
verse. He  read,  as  every  truth-loving  historian 
must  read,  that  the  pious  author  "  recognizes  the 
existing  hierarchy  and  ecclesiastical  constitution 
in  their  whole  extent,  together  with  the  priest- 
hood in  its  function  of  mediating  between  God 
and  man,  and  ...  on  every  occasion  insists 
upon  ecclesiastical  obedience  as  one  of  the  great- 
est virtues."  *  This  is  the  whole  spirit  and  inten- 
tion of  A  Kempis.  And  the  secret  of  the  celebrity 
of  "The  Imitation"  goes  deeper  than  the  popularity 
of  the  hour.     Let  us  consider  it  for  a  moment. 


^  Ibid.,  6. 

'  UUmann,    "  Reform,  vor  der  Ref.,"  loc.  cit.     Eng.  tr., 
vol.  II.,  p.  156. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   165 

XIII. 

I.  How,  it  may  be  asked,  was  the  author  able 
to  compass  within  the  covers  of  this  slender  volume, 
so  much  wisdom,  such  a  vast  spiritual  experience, 
such  beautiful  poetry  and  profound  philosophy. 
And  he  has  done  all  this  with  a  grasp  and  terseness 
of  expression  to  which  no  translation  has  ever  been 
able  to  do  justice.  It  is  because  Thomas  k  Kempis 
is  more  than  a  pious  monk,  picking  up  the  experi- 
ences of  the  Saints  and  Fathers  who  preceded  him ; 
he  is  one  of  the  world-authors  ;  and  "  The  Imitation" 
is  so  clearly  stamped  with  the  impress  of  his  genius, 
that  wherever  men  can  read  they  recognize  it  as  a 
book  that  comes  home  to  their  business  and  bosoms 
for  all  time.  Go  where  you  will,  you  will  perceive  its 
silent  influence  working  for  good,  and  upon  natures 
that  seem  least  prepared  to  be  affected  by  it.  Thus 
we  read  how  a  Moorish  prince  shows  a  missionary 
visiting  him  a  Turkish  version  of  the  book,  and  tells 
him  that  he  prizes  it  above  all  others  in  his  posses- 
sion.' That  prince  may  not  have  been  a  good 
Mohammedan  in  so  prizing  this  little  book ; '  but  if 
he  read  it  with  sincerity  and  thoughtfulness  he  was 
all  the  better  man  for  it.  The  transition  from  the 
cold  and  fixed  fatalism,  the  barren  piety  and  fierce 
tribe-spirit  of  the  Korin  to  the  life  and  warmth  and 
soothing    words    of  "The  Imitation,'*  must  indeed 

'  Avertissement  d'une  ancienne  traduction  publi^e  en  1663, 
prefixed  to  the  edition  of  AbW  Jauffret,  p.  10. 

*  A  book  hath  been  sent  down  unto  thee ;  and  therefore  let 
there  be  no  doubt  in  thy  breast  concerning  it.  .  .  .  Follow  that 
which  hath  been  sent  down  unto  thee  from  thy  Lord ;  and  fol- 
low no  guide  besides  him.     "  Koran,"  chap,  vii.,  i. 


166  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

have  been  to  him  a  new  revelation  that  helped  to 
burst  the  bands  and  cerements  of  many  a  Moham- 
medan prejudice. 

2.  Again,  the  book  has  always  been  a  consoler 
in  tribulation.  Louis  XVI.,  when  a  prisoner,  found 
great  comfort  in  its  pages,  and  read  them  day  and 
night.  La  Harpe,  in  his  love  and  admiration  for 
what  in  his  day  was  considered  elegant  literature^ 
thought  the  book  beneath  his  notice,  even  as  the 
Humanists  before  him  had  regarded  St.  Paul.  But 
La  Harpe  comes  to  grief,  and  imprisoned  in  the 
Luxembourg,  meets  with  it,  and,  opening  it  at 
random,  reads :  "  Bcce  adsum  !  ecce  ego  ad  te  venio 
quia  invocasti  me.  Lacrymae  tuae,  et  desiderium 
animae  tuae,  humiliatio  tua  et  contritio  cordis 
inclinaverunt  me  et  adduxerunt  ad  te!' '  These  touch- 
ing words  seemed  to  come  directly  out  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Consoler  Himself.  It  was  like  an  apparition. 
He  says  :  "  I  fell  on  my  face  and  wept  freely."  Ever 
after  "  The  Imitation  "  was  one  of  La  Harpe's  most 
cherished  books. 

3.  Once  more.  A  woman  of  superior  genius 
grandly  weaves  into  one  of  her  most  powerful 
novels  the  great  influence  which  this  book  wields 
for  good.  The  heroine  is  represented  with  her 
young  soul  stifling  in  the  atmosphere  of  sordid  aim 
and  routine  existence,  her  desires  unsatisfied,  her 
yearnings  finding  no  outlet ;  groping  in  thickest 
darkness,  impulsive,  thoughtless,  imprudent,  and 
withal  well  meaning.  Trouble  and  misfortune  have 
come  upon   her,  and  she  has  not  yet  learned  the 

^Lib.  III.,  cap.  xxi.,  6. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   167 

lesson  of  Christian  patience  and  long-suffering. 
Her  restive  soul  beats  against  the  cage  of  circum- 
stances with  hopeless  flutter.  An  accident  puts  her 
in  possession  of  a  copy  of  "  The  Imitation."  She 
reads  the  book.  It  thrills  her  with  awe,  "  as  if  she 
had  been  wakened  in  the  night  by  a  strain  of  solemn 
music  telling  of  beings  whose  soul  had  been  astir 
while  hers  was  in  a  stupor."  It  is  to  her  the  rev- 
elation of  a  new  world  of  thought  and  spirituality. 
She  realizes  that  life,  even  in  her  confined  sphere 
of  action  and  routine  existence,  may  be  ennobled 
and  made  worth  living.  Was  this  woman  tran- 
scribing a  chapter  from  her  own  life  ?  In  reading 
these  magnificent  pages,  we  feel  that  what  George 
Eliot  so  graphically  recorded  of  Maggie  Tulliver, 
she  had  found  engraven  on  the  heart  of  Marian 
Evans.'  This  is  all  the  more  remarkable,  as  she  did 
not  recognize  the  Divine  source  of  inspiration 
whence  A  Kempis  drew  so  copiously.  But  she  too 
had  her  soul-hungerings,  and  found  many  a  pressing 
question  answered  by  "this  voice  out  of  the  far-off 
Middle  Ages"  much  more  efficiently  than  in  feed- 
ing on  the  husks  of  Positivism  and  Agnosticism. 
And  with  her  experience  of  the  magic  book  well 
might  she  pay  it  this  eloquent  tribute : 

"  I  suppose  that  is  the  reason  why  the  small,  old- 
fashioned  book,  for  which  you  need  only  pay  sixpence 
at  a  bookstall,  works  miracles  to  this  day,  turning 
bitter  waters  into  sweetness,  while  expensive  sermons 
and  treatises,  newly  issued,  leave  all  things  as  they 
were  before.     It  was  written  down  by  a  hand  that 

*  George  Eliot  is  the  nom  de  plume  of  Marian  Evans,  suc- 
cessively Mrs.  George  Lewes  and  Mrs.  Cross. 


168  £:SSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

waited  for  the  heart's  promptings ;  it  is  the  chronicle 
of  a  solitary,  hidden  anguish,  struggle,  trust,  and 
triumph,  not  written  on  velvet  cushions  to  teach 
endurance  to  those  who  are  treading  with  bleeding 
feet  on  the  stones.  And  so  it  remains  to  all  time  a 
lasting  record  of  human  needs  and  human  consol- 
ation ;  the  voice  of  a  brother  who,  ages  ago,  felt, 
and  suffered  and  renounced,  in  the  cloister,  per- 
haps, with  serge  and  gown  and  tonsured  head,  with 
much  chanting  and  long  fasts,  and  with  a  fashion  of 
speech  different  from  ours,  but  under  the  same 
silent  far-off  heavens,  and  with  the  same  passionate 
desires,  the  same  strivings,  the  same  failures,  the 
same  weariness." ' 

Not  with  the  same  failures,  for  this  good  monk 
sought  only  God  and  God  was  with  him ;  not  with 
the  same  weariness,  for  possessing  God  in  his  heart, 
he  was  filled  with  joy  and  in  all  gladness  of  soul  he 
took  up  his  burden  and  bore  it  cheerfully. 

XIV. 

I.  Here  is  the  secret  of  the  magic  influence 
wielded  by  "  The  Imitation."  Pick  it  up  when  or 
where  we  may,  open  it  at  any  page  we  will,  we 
always  find  something  to  suit  our  frame  of  mind. 
The  author's  genius  has  such  complete  control  of 
the  subject,  and  handles  it  with  so  firm  a  grasp, 
that  in  every  sentence  we  find  condensed  the  ex- 
perience of  ages.  It  is  humanity  finding  in  this 
simple  man  an  adequate  mouthpiece  for  the  utter- 
ance of  its  spiritual  wants  and  soul  yearnings.  And 
his  expression  is  so  full  and  adequate  because  he 


»  "The  Mill  on  the  Floss,"  bk.  IV.,  chap,  iii.,  p.  272. 


CULTURE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE.   169 

regarded  things  in  the  white  light  of  God's  truth, 
and  saw  their  nature  and  their  worth  clearly  and 
distinctly,  as  divested  of  the  hues  and  tints  flung 
around  them  by  passion  and  illusion.  He  probed 
the  human  heart  to  its  lowest  depths  and  its  inmost 
folds ;  he  searched  intentions  and  motives  and  found 
self  lurking  in  the  purest ;  he  explored  the  windings 
of  human  folly  and  human  misery  and  discovered 
them  to  proceed  from  self-love  and  self-gratification. 
But  this  author  does  not  simply  lay  bare  the  sores 
and  wounds  of  poor,  bleeding  human  nature. 
He  also  prescribes  the  remedy.  And  none  need  go 
away  unhelped.  For  the  foot-sore  who  are  weary 
with  treading  the  sharp  stones  and  piercing  thorns 
on  the  highways  and  byways  of  life ;  for  the  heart 
aching  with  pain  and  dissappointment  and  crushed 
with  a  weight  of  tribulations;  for  the  intellect 
parched  with  thirsting  after  the  fountain  of  true 
knowledge ;  for  the  soul  living  in  aridity  and  dryness 
of  spirit ;  for  the  sinner  immersed  in  the  mire  of  sin 
and  iniquity,  and  the  saint,  earnestly  toiling  up  the 
hill  of  perfection  —  for  all  he  prescribes  a  balm  that 
heals,  and  to  all  does  he  show  the  road  that  leads 
to  the  Life  and  the  Light.  And  for  this  reason 
have  I  attempted  to  give  you  a  glimpse  of  the 
treasures  contained  in  his  little  book,  that  you  may 
through  it  in  a  special  manner  cultivate  the  Spirit- 
ual Sense. 

Sublime  truths  these,  which  we  have  been  con- 
templating. If  I  knew  a  nobler  or  a  more  elevated 
doctrine,  you  should  have  it.     As  it  is,  I  have  placed 


170  JSSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

before  you  the  highest  philosophic  ideal,  that  the 
most  fruitful  in  thought  and  word  and  work.  You 
may  not  grasp  its  full  meaning,  or  my  expression 
of  it  may  have  been  inadequate  to  its  sublime  con- 
ception ;  be  this  as  it  may,  I  still  present  it  to  you 
with  the  conviction  that  it  is  best  for  you.  I  have 
no  heart  for  the  mere  negations  of  criticism  or  the 
barrenness  of  controversy.  They  may  be  good  in 
their  way  ;  they  are  good  and  necessary  in  their  way, 
for  they  help  to  remove  error  and  prejudice.  But 
they  bear  within  themselves  none  of  the  germs  of 
life.  And  thought  is  starving  and  the  soul  is  be- 
coming chilled  for  want  of  the  warmth  of  life  and  the 
nourishment  of  life-giving  food  in  men's  teachings. 
Great  intellects,  hungering  and  thirsting,  grope  in 
the  cold  and  the  dark  for  spiritual  meat  and  drink 
with  an  earnestness  and  a  yearning  that  are  rarely 
witnessed  in  the  history  of  thought.  Back  of  the 
Rationalism  and  Agnosticism  of  the  day,  may  we 
read  a  strong  religious  feeling  crying  out  for  life  and 
light  and  warmth.  Could  those  intellects  ascend 
the  heights  traversed  by  the  great  geniuses  in 
whose  company  we  have  been  —  could  they  see 
things  as  Plato  occasionally  saw  them,  as  with  still 
keener  vision  St.  John  saw  them,  and  as  Clement 
and  Augustine  and  Aquinas  and  A  Kempis  saw 
them  —  they  too  would  find  that  rest  and  that  ful- 
ness of  life,  that  belong  to  those  dwelling  in  the 
broad  daylight  of  God's  truth. 


OdR  GATHGLie  SCHOOL  SYSTEM 


(in) 


OUlf  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.' 
L 

The  Institutions. 

^UR  Catholic  School  System  includes  all  grades 
^  of  instruction  from  the  nursery  and  the  kinder- 
garten to  the  university.  It  comprises  orphan 
asylums  and  industrial  schools,  parish  schools,  con- 
vents, academies,  colleges,  seminaries  and  universi- 
ties. They  all  of  them  have  this  in  common :  That 
while  imparting  such  knowledge  as  is  required  for  the 
secular  professions,  the  chief  cause  of  their  existence 
is  to  educate  Catholic  children  in  the  doctrines  and 
practices  of  their  faith.  No  attempt  has  been  made 
to  organize  our  Catholic  institutions  into  a  complete 
system,  a  living  whole,  with  unity  of  plan  and  pur- 
pose. They  have  sprung  up  according  to  exigencies 
of  time  and  place.  They  have  no  central  control,  no 
general  inspection.  There  is  no  uniformity  in  the 
matter  of  class  books,  no  uniformity  in  the  matter 
of  class  work.  They  differ  in  their  standing  and  in 
their  standard  of  excellence. 

It  is  difficult  to  have  it  otherwise  in  our  private 
institutions.  Liberty  of  action  in  using  different 
methods  need  not  interfere  with  the  efficiency  of 
work    done.       The    methods    of    the    Madams   of 


*  This  essay  was  read  at  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  Chi- 
cago, in  the  summer  of  1893. 

(178) 


174  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

the  Sacred  Heart  are  distinct  from  those  of  the 
Visitandines ;  the  methods  of  the  Lazarists  or 
Sulpitians  are  not  those  of  the  Benedictines  or 
Augustinians,  and  these  again  are  distinct  from 
the  methods  of  the  Jesuits,  even  as  the  members 
of  each  order  receive  a  distinct  training.  But  amid 
all  this  variety  as  regards  the  means,  there  is  unity  as 
regards  the  end  for  which  our  Catholic  institutions 
exist.  Keeping  in  view  that  end,  we  shall  cast  a 
hasty  glance  at  our  schools,  throwing  out  here  and 
there,  in  all  charity,  such  suggestions  as  occur. 

II. 

FarocMal  Schools. 

We  shall  begin  with  that  portion  of  our  educa- 
tional system  which  is  dearest  to  the  heart  of  every 
Catholic;  namely,  our  parochial  schools.  These 
schools  have  been  multiplied  and  fostered  at  great 
sacrifices —  financial  sacrifices  on  the  part  of  the  laity 
who  contributed  to  their  erection  and  maintenance ; 
sacrifices  of  life  on  the  part  of  religious  teachers 
who  not  unfrequently  spent  their  energies  in  rooms 
low  and  dingy,  overcrowded  and  ill  ventilated ; 
sacrifices  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  who  deprived 
themselves  in  many  ways  in  order  that  the  parish 
schools  might  flourish.  The  parish  school  system, 
be  its  defects  and  shortcomings  what  they  may,  is 
indispensable  for  the  preservation  of  the  Catholic 
religion  in  the  hearts  of  our  Catholic  children.  It  is 
the  nursery  of  the  faith  for  the  rising  generation. 

Every  Catholic  clergyman  ministering  at  the 
altar  of  God  ;    every   Catholic    layman   having  at 


OUR    CATHOLIC   SCHOOL   SYSTEM.       175 

heart  the  survival,  the  strengthening  and  the  propa- 
gation of  his  faith,  desires  a  parish  school  in  which 
those  boys  and  girls  who  are  to  be  the  future  men 
and  women  of  their  church,  shall  receive  a  solid 
religious  training.  Our  Protestant  brethren  at- 
tempted another  plan.  They  sent  their  children  to 
schools  from  which  all  religious  creeds  were  ban- 
ished, and  by  their  Sunday  Schools  and  religious 
Hbraries  sought  to  supply  the  lack  of  religious  train- 
ing. Did  they  succeed  ?  No,  gentlemen  ;  they  did 
not.  Their  plan  has  ended  in  failure.  From  Meth- 
odist and  Lutheran,  from  Baptist  and  Presbyterian 
and  Episcopalian,  the  wail  has  gone  forth  that  the 
young  men  and  women  of  the  day  are  abandoning 
the  creeds  of  their  fathers  and  that  their  churches 
are  becoming  deserted. 

Would  matters  have  been  any  better  a  hundred 
years  ago  if  the  early  settlers  had  not  maintained 
strictly  denominational  schools  ?  Would  Catholicity 
flourish  in  the  country  as  it  is  now  flourishing,  if 
there  had  been  no  Catholic  schools  in  which  children 
might  inhale  a  Catholic  atmosphere,  study  the 
Catholic  catechism,  learn  their  Catholic  prayers,  and 
imbibe  for  the  Church,  her  sacraments  and  her 
clergy  that  reverence  which  is  the  envy  and  the 
admiration  of  the  outside  world?  Certainly  not. 
There  may  be  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  ways 
and  means  by  which  Catholic  education  is  to  be 
imparted  and  Catholic  schools  are  to  be  supported, 
but  there  can  be  none  regarding  the  self-evident 
truth  that  if  the  Church  in  America  is  to  be  perpet- 
uated  in   a    robust,   God-fearing    and   God-serving 


176  JSSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS, 

Catholicity,  it  is  only  by  the  establishment  of 
a  Catholic  school  in  every  Catholic  parish.  This 
result  is  not  accomplished,  this  result  cannot  be 
accomplished  in  neutral  schools. 

The  Holy  Father  is  most  emphatic  on  the  sub- 
ject, in  a  recent  letter  to  the  bishops  of  France. 

"  It  is  of  the  greatest  importance,"  says  His  Holi- 
ness, "that  the  children  sprung  from  Christian 
marriage  should  be  instructed  in  the  precepts  of 
religion  at  an  early  age;  and  that  the  studies  in 
which  youth  is  wont  to  be  educated,  be  combined 
with  religious  training.  To  separate  the  one  from 
the  other  is  really  to  wish  that  youthful  minds 
should  remain  neutral  in  their  duties  to  God.  This 
teaching  is  false,  and  especially  dangerous  in  the 
early  years  of  childhood,  because  it  paves  the  way  to 
Atheism  and  saps  the  foundations  of  religion.  Good 
parents  should  exercise  the  greatest  care  to  see  that 
their  children,  when  they  first  begin  to  under- 
stand, learn  the  truths  of  religion,  and  that  there 
be  nothing  in  the  schools  hurtful  to  the  integrity  of 
faith  and  morality.  It  is  a  precept  of  both  the 
divine  and  natural  law  that  they  exercise  this  dili- 
gence in  the  education  of  their  offspring ;  nor  can 
they  for  any  reason  be  released  from  the  obligation 
of  this  law. 

"  Indeed,  the  Church,  the  guardian  and  vindicator 
of  the  integrity  of  the  faith,  whose  duty  it  is,  in  vir- 
tue of  the  authority  conferred  on  her  by  God,  her 
founder,  to  call  all  people  to  the  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  and  likewise  diligently  to  see  how  the 
youth  subject  to  her  authority  are  educated,  has 
always  openly  condemned  what  are  called  mixed  or 
neutral  schools,  and  again  and  again  admonished 
parents  in  a  matter  of  such  great  moment  to  avoid 
them  as  much  as  possible.  In  obeying  the  Church 
in   this,  parents  at  the  same  time  serve  their  own 


OUR   CATHOLIC  SCHOOL   SYSTEM.       177 

interests  and  very  greatly  benefit  the  state.  For  if 
childhood  be  not  formed  on  religious  principles, 
youth  grows  up  in  ignorance  of  the  most  important 
moral  factors,  which  alone  can  nourish  a  zeal  for 
virtue  in  men  and  restrain  their  irrational  appetites." ' 

Golden  words  these,  words  of  weight  and  wisdom 
far  beyond  all  else  that  may  be  said  on  the  subject. 
It  confirms  us  in  holding  the  Catholic  school  to  be 
the  nursery  of  the  Catholic  congregation,  the 
inclosed  garden  in  which  are  fostered  vocations  to 
the  priesthood  and  to  religious  life ;  in  a  word,  the 
hope  and  the  mainstay  of  the  Church  in  the  future. 

The  parochial  school  has  been  all  this  in  the 
past.  When  we  consider  the  history  of  Catholic 
education  during  the  fifty  years  that  have  just 
elapsed,  and  note  the  many  serious  obstacles  which 
our  Catholic  schools  have  had  to  contend  with,  and 
at  the  same  time  go  over  the  roll  call  of  prominent 
Catholics  who  have  had  their  early  training  in  these 
schools  —  archbishops,  bishops,  and  priests,  and  re- 
ligious men  and  women  whose  vocation  has  been 
fostered  in  them ;  eminent  laymen  now  filling  posi- 
tions of  trust  and  honor,  whose  consciences  were 
there  formed,  and  who  had  there  learned  to  be 
proud  of  their  faith  and  to  practice  its  teachings  to 
the  best  of  their  ability  —  we  are  compelled  to 
regard  these  schools,  even  in  their  least  efficient 
forms  with  great  respect.  In  no  sense  are  they 
failures.  In  no  sense  are  they  to  be  abandoned  or 
neglected  ;  rather  in  the  very  words  of  Leo  XIII. 
concerning  these   schools,  "every  effort  should  be 

*  Letters  to  the  French  Bishops. 
E.  M.— 12 


178  BSSATS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

made  to  multiply  Catholic  schools  and  to  bring 
them  to  perfect  equipment."  Therefore  it  is  that 
His  Holiness  in  his  latest  utterance  to  the  Amer- 
ican hierarchy  from  which  I  have  just  quoted, 
solemnly  declares  that : 

"The  decrees  which  the  Baltimore  Councils, 
agreeably  to  the  directions  of  the  Holy  See,  have 
enacted  concerning  parochial  schools,  and  whatever 
else  has  been  prescribed  by  the  Roman  Pontiffs, 
whether  directly  or  through  the  sacred  congrega- 
tion, concerning  the  same  matter,  be  steadfastly 
observed."  * 

These  are  truths  to  which  this  Catholic  Congress 
unqualifiedly  pledges  itself,  yea,  even  in  the  face 
of  the  great  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  maintain- 
ing and  promoting  the  parochial  school.  The  fact 
is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  lost  sight  of,  that  our 
parish  schools,  as  at  present  managed,  are  a  great 
burden  upon  the  people  and  a  great  source  of  solici- 
tude for  the  clergy.  On  account  of  their  limited 
resources  they  are  restricted  in  the  sphere  of  their 
usefulness.  Parochial  school-teachers  are  paid  but 
one  half  or  one  third  of  the  salaries  that  they  might 
earn  in  the  public  schools. 

The  brotherhoods  and  sisterhoods  that  are  teach- 
ing orders,  are  with  great  difficulty  and  much  econ- 
omizing scarcely  enabled  to  make  ends  meet. 
Out  of  the  pittance  that  they  receive  as  salary,  at 
least  a  fourth  part  goes  to  the  support  of  the  noviti- 
ates and  houses  of  study  of  the  order  to  which  they 
belong.    Inquire  into  the  extent  of  that  salary ;  think 

*  Letters  to  Cardinal  Gibbons,  May  31,  1893. 


OUR    CATHOLIC   SCHOOL    SYSTEM.       179 

of  the  plain,  bare  mode  of  life  that  these  religious 
lead ;  figure  out  their  many  privations  —  not  physical 
or  mental  privations,  for  these  they  do  not 
reckon,  but  privations  as  regards  books,  charts, 
school  apparatus  and  conveniences  for  study,  that  it 
is  impossible  for  them  to  purchase  and  that  they 
must  go  without,  unless  indeed  a  thoughtful  pastor 
should  supply  these  deficiencies  at  his  own  expense 
or  the  expense  of  his  parish — and  you  may  form  a 
slight  conception  of  the  odds  against  which  they  are 
working,  and  how  heavily  handicapped  they  are  in 
the  race  for  excellence.  Withal,  an  hour  spent  at 
the  Catholic  educational  exhibit  will  convince  you 
that  a  skillful  workman,  even  with  an  inferior  quality 
of  tools,  can  produce  good  results.  But,  could  these 
privations  be  lessened,  and  the  burden  upon  the 
parishes  lightened ;  could  our  religious  teachers 
receive  sufficient  support  to  enable  them  to  enter  upon 
their  work  untrammeled,  then  indeed  might  we  look 
for  results  that  would  be  worthy  of  the  cause. 

Now,  the  day  may  not  be  far  distant  when  Cath- 
olics in  many  of  our  commonwealths  shall  be  given 
their  share  of  the  school  funds  ;  it  is  an  act  of  equity 
that  cannot  be  long  postponed.  When  that  day 
comes,  as  come  it  shall,  it  is  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance that  we  be  prepared.  It  is  essential  that  our 
teachers,  religious  and  secular,  be  possessed  of  their 
certificates  and  diplomas  as  teachers  —  not  from  a 
clerical  or  a  religious  body,  but  from  the  state  —  and 
that  no  man  or  woman  among  the  younger  members 
of  our  religious  order  be  permitted  to  teach  without 
a  diploma.     These  arrangements  will  bring  teachers 


180  JSSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS, 

and  schools  in  touch  with  the  state,  win  the  con- 
fidence of  the  authorities,  and  help  to  remove  the 
prejudices  that  do  not  now  permit  those  authorities 
to  do  us  justice  and  see  anything  good  come  out  of 
Nazareth.  It  will  prepare  us  for  the  day  when  the 
Christian  religion  shall  be  recognized  in  our  public 
schools,  and  our  Catholic  schools  will  no  longer  be 
deprived  of  ample  support  because  our  children  in 
learning  to  be  good  Catholics  are  also  learning  the 
truest  means  of  becoming  loyal  citizens.  That 
day  is  now  dawning.  If  the  Catholic  Church  in 
America  is  to  be  preserved  from  the  indifferentism 
which  is  at  the  present  moment  gangrening  Catholic 
Italy,  Catholic  Spain,  and  Catholic  France,  it  is 
only  by  safeguarding  the  Catholic  child  in  the 
parochial  school.  Indeed  every  Christian  denomi- 
nation possessed  of  sufficient  vitality  to  seek  to 
prolong  its  existence,  is  now  convinced  that  without 
further  parley  it  must  make  the  question  of  Chris- 
tian education  its  own,  for  the  very  existence  of 
each  denomination  depends  upon  the  denomina- 
tional training  that  the  child  shall  receive  in  the 
schoolroom. 

III. 

Convent  Schools. 
Next  in  importance  to  the  parish  school  for  boys 
and  girls,  is  the  convent  school  in  which  the 
daughters  of  our  well-to-do  Catholics  receive  the 
training  that  fits  them  to  be  the  religious  teachers  or 
the  model  wives  and  mothers  of  the  next  genera- 
tion. The  convent  school  is  a  choice  garden 
attached  to  the   Lord  *s  household,   in   which  the 


OUR    CATHOLIC   SCHOOL   SYSTEM.       181 

sweetest  flowers  of  virtue  are  tended  and  fostered 
by  women  of  piety,  zeal  and  culture.  Its  influence 
extends  far  and  wide  throughout  the  land.  Among 
the  leading  social  forces  in  America  to-day,  the 
women  whose  power  for  good  is  most  far-reaching 
are  pupils  of  the  convent  school. 

The  tendency  in  these  latter  days  is  to  make 
woman  as  independent  as  she  can  possibly  become. 
A  thousand  new  avenues  of  industry  are  open  to 
her;  a  thousand  recently  created  occupations  now 
yield  her  maintenance,  and  in  her  efforts  to  become 
self-supporting  she  has  proved  herself  fully  compe- 
tent to  discharge  every  duty  and  responsibility  that 
she  assumed.  This  state  of  affairs  entails  a  more 
practical  training  in  all  our  schools  for  girls.  Even 
the  woman  of  wealth  and  leisure  is  expected  to 
know  more  than  the  last  play  or  the  latest  fashion  in 
dress,  and  to  do  more  than  merely  pass  through  her 
rounds  of  social  visits  and  entertainments.  The  care 
and  visitation  of  the  poor,  attendance  at  hospitals, 
the  nursing  of  the  sick,  and  kindred  work  are  classed 
among  her  duties  and  responsibilities. 

Nor  does  it  suffice  that  she  pose  as  my  lady 
bountiful.  If  she  is  to  hold  her  own  in  the  social 
world,  she  must  read  and  think  and  sift  the  knowU 
edge  that  she  has  acquired.  Moreover,  so  many 
fortunes  are  nowadays  carried  down  the  maelstrom 
of  wild  speculation,  every  woman  should  be  prepared 
to  turn  her  hand  to  some  means  of  support  in  case  of 
necessity.  The  convent  school  is  expected  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  all  this  practical  knowledge.  Sub- 
jects that  were  scarcely  ever  studied  forty  years  ago 


182  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS, 

are  now  considered  of  primary  importance  and  find  a 
place  upon  every  curriculum  prepared  to  meet 
present  requirements. 

There  are  those  who  insist  that  there  is  no 
convent  curriculum  prepared  to  meet  present 
requirements  as  Vassar  or  Bryn  Maur  meet  them, 
and  who  accordingly  object  to  convent  education 
because  it  is  not  abreast  of  the  times.  They  tell  us 
that  the  nun  has  no  means  of  advancing  in  her 
studies.  They  even  undertake  to  trace  her  life 
for  us,  and  show  her  to  us  entering  the  novitiate 
while  still  a  schoolgirl,  or  soon  after  her  graduation  ; 
thereafter,  these  people  assure  us,  she  is  not  per- 
mitted to  read  any  author  outside  the  spiritual 
works  given  her  for  her  devotions,  and  the  text-book 
she  makes  use  of  in  class,  and  in  consequence  she 
knows  only  the  literature  that  she  had  read  before 
entering  the  order,  and  is  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
literature  that  is  coloring  the  thoughts  and  moulding 
the  minds  of  the  children  she  assumes  to  educate. 
She  is  represented  as  a  generation  behind  her  age, 
out  of  touch  with  the  thoughts  and  sentiments 
actuating  those  with  whom  she  is  charged. 

Is  not  the  case  grossly  exaggerated  ?  Is  the  nun 
really  so  benighted  ?  You  have  not  found  her  so. 
You  have  found  in  the  convent  in  which  your  daugh- 
ters and  sisters  are  educated,  women  of  culture, 
women  who  have  made  serious  studies,  women  who 
are  familiar  with  the  chief  currents  of  thought.  You 
cannot  conceive  ladies  who  are  so  devout  and  con- 
scientious in  so  many  other  respects,  lacking  all 
conscience  in  this  important  purpose  of  education, 


OUR    CATHOLIC  SCHOOL    SrSTBM.        183 

devoting  their  lives  to  that  work  and  yet  only  play- 
ing at  it,  imparting  a  pretense  of  knowledge  for  real 
knowledge,  drawing  from  stagnant  pools  of  anti- 
quated  learning  when  their  duty  is  to  give  of  the 
running  stream.  Were  such  the  case,  then  indeed 
would  there  be  an  absence  of  robustness  in  the  edu- 
cation imparted  by  the  convent.  But  is  it  so  ?  Has 
the  convent  graduate  to  unlearn  so  very  much  after 
she  has  finished  her  studies?  Thousands  of  the 
brightest  and  cleverest  women  in  the  land  are  pre- 
pared by  word  and  example  to  give  the  lie  to  any 
such  assertion.  Still  even  were  it  so — and  it  is  not 
so — the  convent  graduate  would  bear  with  her,  as 
the  fruit  of  her  convent  training,  such  a  treasure  of 
modesty,  virtue  and  womanly  graces  as  were  suf- 
ficient to  outweigh  any  amount  of  purely  brain  de- 
velopment. 

IV. 

Commercial,  Teclmlcal  and  Night  Scbools. 

Passing  over  our  colleges  and  academies,  our 
seminaries  and  universities,  all  of  which  are  achieving 
fair  results  under  many  difficulties,  and  all  of  which 
have  their  place  in  our  school  system,  passing  over 
these  for  the  reason  that  they  will  be  discussed  by 
others  at  this  congress,  passing  over  our  training 
schools  and  industrial  schools,  our  orphanages  and 
asylums,  let  us  take  a  rapid  glance  at  some  of  the 
educational  possibilities  by  which  our  present  system 
may  be  supplemented  and  improved. 

Why,  for  instance,  may  we  not  have  large 
commercial  schools  in  our  principal  cities?     I   am 


184  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

aware  that  there  are  commercial  academies,  some  of 
them  imparting  no  small  degree  of  proficiency  in  the 
shape  of  a  business  training;  but  there  are  none 
conducted  on  the  scale  that  I  would  project.  In  the 
first  place,  such  a  commercial  school  should  be  known 
for  its  thoroughness.  Not  only  should  it  give  all  the 
instruction  that  our  business  colleges  now  impart,  but 
it  should  add  thereto  several  courses  of  a  practical 
character.  Chemistry  as  applied  to  the  industries 
and  manufactures  would  form  a  special  course,  in 
order  that  students  might  understand  the  ingredients 
that  enter  into  diverse  articles  of  commerce  and 
test  the  quality  of  those  articles.  The  historj'  of  the 
chief  industries  could  be  studied  to  advantage ;  so 
could  the  staples  of  various  countries  and  the  most 
favorable  conditions  under  which  they  are  produced. 
As  the  school  is  to  be  patronized  by  an  intelligent 
body  of  young  men  who  are  in  touch  with  the  prac- 
tical side  of  life,  the  courses  of  instructions  should 
include  those  subjects  that  underlie  editorial  leaders 
in  the  daily  papers  and  agitate  the  public  mind 
most  deeply ;  therefore,  these  young  men  should 
have  the  social  and  political  problems  of  the  day 
presented  to  them  in  a  series  of  clear  and  popular 
lectures  based  upon  a  careful  study  of  their  principles 
from  the  Christian  point  of  \^ew.  In  like  manner 
courses  of  lectures  upon  common  law,  upon  history  and 
literature  from  the  same  vantage  ground  would  be  in 
place.  The  certificates  and  diplomas  which  would 
be  given  by  such  an  institution  would  be  coveted  by 
young  men  and  would  be  an  introduction  to  be  re- 
spected by  the   merchants   of  the  community.     I 


OUR   CATHOLIC   SCHOOL    STSTEM.       185 

throw  out  the  hint  as  one  of  the  untried  possibili- 
ties that  would  be  a  great  boon  for  our  Catholic 
young  men. 

Again  there  is  a  large  class  of  our  Catholic  boys 
who  have  been  obliged  to  quit  school  at  an  early 
age  for  the  workshop  or  the  factory,  and  who 
with  riper  years  and  larger  experience  feel  the 
necessity  of  making  up  for  early  deficiencies.  What 
accommodations  have  we  for  this  class  ?  Practically 
none.  Could  not  Catholic  night  schools  flourish  in 
our  large  cities  ?  See  what  a  boon  they  would  be  to 
these  young  men  ;  to  young  women  as  well.  Here 
their  notions  might  be  enlarged  and  corrected ;  here 
might  be  supplied  that  lack  of  intellectual  perspec- 
tive which  usually  accompanies  an  unfinished  train- 
ing, and  which  is  the  greatest  difficulty  to  overcome 
when  reasoning  with  an  ignorant  person;  here 
ambitious  young  men  and  women  might  be  set  upon 
the  road  of  self-improvement.  Nor  would  religious 
instructions,  without  being  offensively  obtrusive, 
fail  to  find  a  place  in  these  night  schools.  Every- 
thing would  be  looked  at  from  the  Catholic  point  of 
view.  The  atmosphere  of  the  school  would  be 
Catholic ;  the  beautiful  ceremonies  of  the  Church 
would  be  explained  till  their  full  meaning  and 
import  would  be  understood  ;  objections  to  our 
religion  would  be  cleared  up ;  Catholic  doctrines 
would  be  so  explained  that  the  young  men  and 
women  would  learn  to  love  and  cherish  and  feel 
proud  of  the  faith  that  is  in  them.  Here  is  a  wide 
field  of  labor  yet  untilled.  It  is  painful  to  witness 
in  large  cities,  like  New  York,  the  active  aggressive- 


186  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

ness  of  those  who  misunderstand  and  misrepresent 
our  faith.  They  attract  to  their  soup-houses  and 
night  schools  hords  of  our  Catholic  Italian  and 
Bohemian  children,  and  inoculate  them  with  un- 
Catholic  and  anti-Catholic  ideas,  while  little  or  noth- 
ing is  done  to  counteract  their  machinations.  This 
is  practical  work  for  our  zealous  Catholic  laity. 

V. 
Reading  Circles,  Clubs  and  Summer  Schools. 

The  more  cultured  class  of  Catholic  young  men 
and  women  are  now  supplementing  their  school 
studies  by  reading  circles  and  literary  clubs.  These 
are  so  many  annexes  to  our  educational  system,  and 
as  such  are  not  to  be  overlooked.  In  them  reading 
is  no  longer  carried  on  in  the  old  desultory  way ;  it 
is  rather  conducted  on  definite  lines  mapped  out  by 
some  competent  scholar ;  the  reader  passes  from  the 
easy  to  the  difficult,  from  the  agreeable  to  the 
severe ;  he  learns  how  to  carry  such  a  course  of 
reading  to  its  conclusion ;  he  acquires  a  habit  of 
sustained  thought ;  his  mind  becomes  thus  sub- 
jected to  wholesome  discipline.  The  members  of 
these  circles  render  mutual  aid ;  they  discuss  the 
topic,  the  author,  the  book ;  what  is  an  obscure 
point  to  one  may  be  comparatively  clear  to  another, 
and  thus  by  interchange  of  views  is  additional  light 
thrown  upon  the  whole  subject.  The  system  is 
admirable  in  its  conception,  admirable  in  its  meth- 
ods, and  admirable  in  its  results. 

Of  our  clubs  for  Catholic  young  men,  little  need 
be  said.     They  are  a  necessity.     If  interest  is  not 


OUR    CATHOLIC   SCHOOL   STSTEM.        187 

taken  in  our  Catholic  young  men  at  that  critical 
period  in  their  lives  when  they  are  on  the  eve  of 
manhood,  and  their  passions  are  strong  and  they  are 
easily  led  into  mischief,  and  if  they  are  not  supplied 
with  legitimate  amusement  which  shall  also  be 
educating,  unless  their  homes  are  very  attractive 
they  are  likely  to  seek  amusement  in  the  bar-room, 
in  the  billiard  room,  or  in  the  rooms  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association.  Now,  it  were  far 
better  that  they  enjoy  themselves  in  a  rational 
manner  under  Catholic  auspices,  than  that  they  do 
so  under  ungodly  or  Protestant  auspices.  Their 
clubs  may  here  and  there  be  a  source  of  annoyance 
to  the  pastor ;  they  may  as  a  body  be  occasionally 
guilty  of  insubordinate  or  unbecoming  conduct ;  but 
be  it  remembered  that  these  are  only  mere  accidents 
of  such  associations  and  are  not  to  be  weighed 
against  the  benefits  that  accrue  from  them  when 
wisely  and  prudently  managed. 

Another  institution  that  has  grown  out  of  our 
reading  circles  and  that  bids  fair  to  become  an  inti- 
mate portion  of  our  Catholic  system  of  education  is 
the  Catholic  Summer  School,  Almost  spontane- 
ously, before  even  its  projectors  had  realized  its 
great  power  and  influence  as  an  educational  force, 
this  school  sprang  into  existence  and  received  a 
cordial  reception  from  laity  and  hierarchy ;  and 
now,  on  the  morn  following  its  second  session  it  has 
become  an  object  of  abiding  interest  among  the 
Catholics  of  America.  The  institution  is  too  young 
to  be  understood  by  all ;  it  is  too  great  a  departure 
from  old  lines  not  to  be  regarded  with  the  eye  of 


188  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

suspicion,  and  court  comment,  and  meet  with  carp- 
ings  and  fault  findings.  Permit  me,  in  a  few  words, 
to  define  its  scope  and  character.  It  is  not  the 
equivalent  of  a  night  school  of  special  studies  in 
which  young  men  and  women  may  make  good  the 
deficiencies  of  an  education  early  neglected;  it  is 
not  a  school  of  special  studies  in  which  within  a 
limited  time  and  by  concentrated  efforts,  proficiency 
may  be  made  in  any  one  branch  ;  it  does  not  pretend 
to  give  a  complete  college  course.  Later  on  it  may 
grow  to  any  or  all  of  these,  but  at  present  it  is  none 
of  them. 

The  primary  import  of  the  Catholic  Summer 
School  is  this:  To  give  from  the  most  authorita- 
tive sources  among  our  Catholic  writers  and  thinkers 
the  Catholic  point  of  view  on  all  the  issues  of  the  day 
in  history,  in  literature,  in  philosophy,  in  political 
science,  upon  the  economic  problems  that  are  agitat- 
ing the  world,  upon  the  relations  between  science  and 
religion  ;  to  state  in  the  clearest  possible  terms  the 
principle  underlying  truth  in  each  and  all  these  sub- 
jects ;  to  remove  false  assumptions  and  correct  false 
statements;  to  pursue  the  calumnies  and  slanders  ut- 
tered against  our  creed  and  our  Chu  rch  to  their  last  lurk- 
ing place.  Our  reading  Catholics,  in  the  busy  round  of 
of  their  daily  occupations,  heedlessly  snatch  out  of  the 
secular  journals  and  magazines  undigested  opinions 
upon  important  subjects,  opinions  hastily  written  and 
not  infrequently  erroneously  expressed ;  men  and 
events,  theories  and  schemes  and  projects  are  dis- 
cussed upon  unsound  principles  and  assumptions 
which  the  readers  have  but  scant  time  to  unravel  and 


OUR   CATHOLIC  SCHOOL   STSTEM.       189 

rectify ;  the  poison  of  these  false  premises  enters 
into  their  thinking,  corrodes  their  reasoning,  and 
unconsciously  they  accept  as  truth  conclusions  that 
are  only  distortions  of  truth.  It  is  among  the 
chief  purposes  of  the  Summer  School  to  supply 
antidotes  for  this  poison.  And  therefore  the  ablest 
and  best  equipped  among  our  Catholic  leaders  of 
thought,  whether  lay  or  clerical,  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  a  cultured  Catholic  audience,  and  give  their 
listeners  the  fruits  of  life-long  studies  in  those 
departments  of  science  or  letters  in  which  they  have 
become  eminent.  They  state  in  single  lectures 
or  in  courses  of  lectures  such  principles  and  facts  and 
methods  as  may  afterwards  be  used  and  applied  in 
one's  reading  for  the  detection  of  error  and  the  dis- 
covery of  truth.  To  achieve  such  work  is  the 
mission  of  the  Catholic  Summer  School,  and  there- 
fore does  it  in  all  propriety,  and  in  all  justice,  take  a 
place  in  our  Catholic  system  of  education. 

VI. 

The  Catnollc  University  and  Normal  Schools. 

Splendid  as  is  the  structure  of  our  Catholic 
School  System,  it  is  not  yet  complete.  Additions 
are  to  be  made.     We  shall  indicate  two : 

I.  Our  Catholic  university  at  Washington  is  still 
in  the  stage  of  incipiency ;  but  if  true  to  itself  and 
to  Catholic  educational  traditions,  it  may  become  a 
great  educational  force.  To  speak  of  its  technical 
work  were  to  transcend  the  scope  of  this  paper ;  but 
in  general  terms  we  may  state  its  mission.     It  is  to 


190  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

elevate  the  tone  of  Catholic  thought  and  Catholic 
scholarship  in  America ;  to  train  Catholic  pro- 
fessors who  will  become  specialists  of  weight  and 
authority  in  our  Catholic  colleges,  and  thus  give 
more  thoroughness  and  efficiency  to  the  instructions 
imparted  in  academy  and  college ;  to  broaden  and 
deepen  the  lines  of  studies  pursued  in  our  semi- 
naries ;  to  give  us  the  latest  word  in  the  domain  of 
science  and  letters;  in  original  research  to  go  for- 
ward beyond  the  known  and  conquer  new  kingdoms ; 
to  harmonize  the  more  recently  discovered  lands  of 
science  with  revealed  religion  ;  to  make  profound 
study  of  the  great  living  issues  whether  in  philos- 
ophy, in  literature  or  political  science.  All  this  our 
Catholic  university  cannot  dream  of  accomplishing 
for  decades  to  come ;  but  all  this  it  is  within  its 
province  to  achieve,  and  all  this  cultured  men  the 
world  over  expect  from  it  in  due  time.  Will  they 
be  disappointed  ? 

2.  As  we  require  a  predominating  university  in 
order  to  supply  our  colleges  with  efficient  teachers, 
and  elevate  the  tone  of  collegiate  training,  even  so 
do  we  require  Catholic  normal  schools  to  impart  to 
our  teachers  of  primary  instruction  a  spirit  in  keep- 
ing with  our  traditions  and  our  high  ideals  as 
educators.  Here  I  meet  with  the  objection  that  in 
every  commonwealth  there  are  state  normal  schools 
in  which  our  Catholic  teachers  may  be  moulded,  and 
that  those  schools  suffice.  These  schools  are 
admirably  conducted  ;  they  are  excellent  in  their 
way;  but  do  they  indeed  suffice?  By  no  means. 
Permit  me  to  tell  you  why. 


OUR   CATHOLIC  SCHOOL   SYSTEM.       191 

These  schools  —  these  state  normal  schools  — 
prepare  teachers,  but  they  do  not  prepare  Catholic 
teachers.  Look  into  their  books  upon  educational 
methods  ;  what  method  do  you  find  recommended  ? 
Is  it  the  scholastic  method  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
which  won  the  admiration  of  Lord  Bacon  and  of 
nearly  every  thoughtful  man  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  ?  Is  it  the  method  of  La  Salle 
which  has  been  likened  to  the  discovery  of  a  new 
world,  and  which  is  practically  the  method  now  in 
vogue  in  nearly  all  our  schools,  public  and  private  ? 
Not  at  all.  You  read  much  of  Locke  and  Com- 
enius  and  much  of  Lancaster  and  Bell  and  Her- 
bart ;  but  of  our  great  Catholic  educators,  these 
books  have  naught  but  words  of  slight  and  of  condem- 
nation. Our  eminent  Catholic  educators  are  as  a 
rule  misunderstood  and  misrepresented  in  these 
schools.  Is  this  the  spirit  in  which  you  would  have 
Catholic  teachers  trained  ? 

Nor  is  this  all.  Granted  that  our  Catholic  edu- 
cators are  no  longer  misrepresented,  which  is  not  the 
case;  granted  that  Catholic  times  and  Catholic 
methods  and  traditions  receive  their  full  meed  of 
praise,  which  they  are  far  from  receiving  now ; 
granted  that  the  last  scale  of  prejudice  has  dropped 
from  the  eyes  of  state  normal  school  professors, 
which  is  a  condition  of  things  far  off  in  the  future  — 
granted  all  this,  and  there  remains  a  still  weightier 
reason  for  possessing  our  own  normal  schools.  It  is 
this:  The  Catholic  teacher  whose  faith,  during  the 
whole  course  of  training,  has  been  ignored  by  its  his- 
torical, literary  and  religious  aspects ;  whose  mind  has 


192  ESSArs  miscellaneous: 

become  imbued  directly  or  indirectly  with  Prot- 
estant estimates  of  men  and  events ;  whose  training 
has  been  purely  negative  so  far  as  his  religion  with 
all  its  glories  in  history,  literature  and  art  is 
concerned  —  such  a  teacher  is  no  longer  fitted  to 
take  charge  of  a  Catholic  school.  He  is  lacking  in 
religious  knowledge,  in  devotion,  and  in  the  robust 
Catholic  spirit.  He  is  timid  where  his  faith  is  con- 
cerned. He  keeps  it  under  cover.  He  is  afraid  to 
assert  his  Catholicity  lest  in  so  doing  he  give 
offense ;  he  is  annoyed  when  he  hears  others  insist 
that  the  Church  has  been  overlooked  or  misrepre- 
sented by  an  enemy.  He  prefers  to  converse  about 
any  other  topic  than  the  noble,  saving,  life-giving 
truths  of  his  religion.  He  is  an  emasculated  Catholic. 
To  this  estimate  there  are  many  exceptions. 

Think  you  that  the  teacher  so  trained  and  so 
tempered  is  the  manner  of  man  to  inspire  pupils 
with  a  sincere  love  of  religion,  its  doctrines  and  its 
practices?  Where  is  the  warm  Catholic  spirit? 
Where  is  the  glow  of  piety  and  zeal  for  religion  that 
fill  the  breast  of  the  devoted  Catholic  master? 
Where  is  that  delicate  sense  of  appreciation  of  the 
spiritual  and  the  supernatural?  Where  that  ideal 
standard  of  worth  which  prizes  the  salvation  of  a 
soul  above  all  other  things?  It  is  buried  out  of  sight, 
lost  in  the  mere  mechanical  drill  through  which  this 
product  of  the  state  normal  school  has  passed. 

And  so,  if  we  could  have  Catholic  teachers  worthy 
of  the  name,  to  aid  and  strengthen  the  work  of  our 
religious  teaching  orders,  let  them  be  trained  in 
Catholic  normal  schools. 


WHAT  IS  THE  OdTLOOK  F0R  GdR 
eOl2l2E6ES 


E.  M— 13  (Mi) 


WHAT    IS    THE    OUTLOOK    FOR    OUR 
COLLEGES?' 

I. 

LL  three  of  these  works  are  instructive  and 
scholarly  productions  and  amply  repay 
perusal.  They  are  written  from  a  Protestant  stand- 
point, but  they  are  written  by  fair-minded  men 
who  intend  to  be  just.  Still,  the  authors  lack  that 
sympathy  for  the  old  order  of  things  which  colors 
the  page  and  makes  it  glow  with  the  old  life  that 
reigned  in  the  institutions  they  describe.  Not  be- 
ing familiar  with  the  Church  and  her  teachings, 
they  occasionally  misconstrue  the  habits  and 
practices  of  mediaeval  days. 

The  motives  imputed  are  not  always  the  correct 
ones,  nor  are  the  causes  assigned  either  adequate 
or  free  from  error.  Mr.  Mullinger,  for  instance, 
scarcely  gives  sufficient  reason  for  the  decline  of 
the  University  of  Paris  in  the  fifteenth  century 
when  he  tells  us  that  it  was  due  to  the  failure  of 
the  "  Councils  of  Pisa,  Constance,  and   Basle"  to 

'  Catholic  Quarterly  Revie-w. 

"  The  University  of  Cambridge  from  the  Earliest  Time  to 
the  Royal  Injunctions  of  1535,"  By  J.  B.  Mullinger.  Cam- 
bridge University  Press,  1873.  "A  History  of  Eton  College, 
1440-1875,"  By  H.  C.  Maxwell  Lyte,  M.A.,  London,  1877. 
"  History  of  the  Burgh  Schools  of  Scotland,"  By  James  Grant, 
1876. 

Cl»6) 


196  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

establish  "  the  absolute  authority  of  such  assemblies 
over  the  fiat  of  the  pope  himself;"  whilst  his  words 
would  leave  the  erroneous  impression  that  the 
shadow  of  that  fiat  deterred  intellectual  expansion. 
Nor  does  he  understand  the  asceticism  and  devo- 
tion of  the  monks  whose  lives  and  energies  were 
spent  in  the  noble  cause  of  education.  In  the  same 
sense  and  with  the  same  reserve  may  we  commend 
the  work  of  Mr.  Maxwell  Lyte  on  Eton  College. 
It  is  painstaking  and  full  of  information  which 
every  educator  ought  to  know.  Mr.  Grant  also 
writes  in  good  faith.  His  testimony  is  so  strong  in 
favor  of  general  education  throughout  Scotland, 
prior  to  the  Reformation,  that  we  cannot  refrain 
from  bringing  it  into  evidence.     He  says: 

"With  church  schools  and  burgh  schools  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  we  may  be  sure  that  they  did 
something  to  '  teach  the  poor  for  God's  sake,  and 
the  rich  for  reason,  and  nothing  to  pay  except  they 
be  profited.'" 

Again,  in  summing  up  his  researches  on  this 
period,  he  pays  the  following  ungrudging  tribute  to 
the  Church : 

"  The  scattered  jottings  collected  in  this  chapter 
show  our  obligation  to  the  ancient  Church  for  hav- 
ing so  diligently  promoted  our  national  education — 
an  education  placed  within  the  reach  of  a// 
classes." 

Such  testimony  is  deserving  of  record;  but  such 
testimony  is  always  given  by  witnesses  who  place 
truth  above  prejudice  or  bigotry. 

Refreshing  and  instructive  is  it  to  go  back  to 
mediaeval  school  life  as  these  works  reveal  it.     It 


OUR   COLLEGES.  197 

was  a  life  tempered  with  few  material  comforts 
and  made  severe  by  many  hardships.  The  fare 
was  not  dainty.  That  of  Oxford  was  considered 
superior;  and  yet  when  Sir  Thomas  Moore  found 
himself  in  reduced  circumstances  and  spoke  of 
retrenching  expenses,  in  his  own  witty  way  he 
made  it  the  extreme  limit  of  poor  living:  "My 
counsel  is,  that  we  fall  not  to  the  lowest  fare  first ; 
we  will  not  therefore  descend  to  the  Oxford  fare." 
The  discipline  was  strict,  and  its  slightest  breach 
was  atoned  by  severe  bodily  punishment.  "  If  con- 
victed of  any  infringement  of  the  college  rules  they 
were  soundly  birched  in  the  hall  of  the  court." 
When  a  vacation  was  given,  every  student  was 
obliged  to  return  without  fail  on  the  day  ap- 
pointed. "  Anybody  who  failed  to  return  by  bed- 
time that  day  received  a  flogging,  while  any  who 
absented  themselves  beyond  the  next  day  were 
deprived  of  their  scholarships."  It  is  no  surprise 
to  meet  among  the  items  for  which  there  was  a 
regular  charge,  the  birch.  We  are  told :  "  A 
curious  charge  of  sixpence  occurs  every  term  as 
'  quarterydge  in  penne  and  ynke,  brome  and  birch.'  " 
The  rooms  were  damp  and  uncomfortable.  Only 
in  the  large  halls  were  fires  allowed,  and  even  there 
very  sparingly.  Lever,  the  Master  of  St.  John's 
Cambridge,  in  a  well-known  sermon  delivered  in 
1550,  tells  how  the  students,  being  without  fire, 
"  are  fain  to  walk  or  run  up  and  down  half  an  hour, 
to  get  a  heat  in  their  feet  when  they  go  to  bed." 
Even  a  bench  or  seat  in  school  was  considered  a 
luxury  the   enjoyment    of   which   students   might 


198  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

forfeit.  A  statute  of  Pope  Urban  V.  bearing  date 
of  1366  forbids  the  use  of  either. 

But  as  an  offset  to  this,  we  must  remember  that 
discipline  in  the  family  was  also  severe.  The  will 
of  the  father  was  law  beyond  appeal.  The  ancient 
Roman  tradition  of  his  power  for  life  or  death  still 
lingered  around  the  hearthstone.  Children  were 
betrothed  as  soon  as  born  ;  they  were  placed  in 
monasteries  or  convents  at  the  tenderest  age.  The 
eldest  son  followed  the  calling  of  the  father  from 
generation  to  generation  without  a  thought  of 
change.  In  every  direction  the  lines  were  rigidly 
drawn.  Therefore,  in  spite  of  all  the  inconven- 
iences, and  the  positive  hardships  which  frequently 
cost  youth  their  lives,  the  halls  of  all  these  colleges 
were  thronged.  Eager  youths,  and  grown-up  men 
still  more  eager,  endured  the  cold  and  the  hunger, 
the  hardships,  and  the  privations,  with  cheerful 
heart  and  hopeful  spirit,  for  the  sake  of  the  educa- 
tion they  received;  nay,  they  prized  their  educa- 
tion all  the  more  because  of  the  difficulties  under 
which  it  was  acquired. 

These  mediaeval  schools  have  passed  into  other 
hands.  They  have,  to  a  great  extent,  been  diverted 
from  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  founded 
and  endowed.  Still,  in  England  especially,  they 
have  retained  many  of  the  old  traditions  and  even 
something  of  the  old  spirit. 

"  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say,"  says  Cardinal 
Newman,  "  that  the  colleges  in  the  English  univer- 
sities may  be  considered  in  matters  of  fact  to  be 
the  lineal  descendants  of  heirs  of  Charlemagne." 


OUR   COLLEGES.  199 

This  fact  reveals  the  sources  whence  they  have 
drawn  whatever  power  or  influence  they  have 
wielded.  An  institution,  if  it  would  live  and 
thrive,  must  imbibe  its  spirit  from  the  soil  in  which 
it  is  rooted  ;  its  vitality  must  come  from  the  tradi- 
tions in  which  it  is  planted.  They  supply  the  sap 
that  circulates  through  it,  giving  it  life  and  being. 
Now,  it  devolves  on  our  Catholic  colleges  to  carry 
out  the  traditions  and  intentions  of  those  venerable 
establishments  that  are  the  growth  of  Catholic 
piety  and  Catholic  charity.  And  though  our 
Catholic  colleges  are  only  the  work  of  yesterday, 
still,  the  principle  that  inspired  their  erection  is  as 
old  as  reason,  as  unchanging  as  truth,  and  as  last- 
ing as  the  Church.  It  is  the  same  principle  out  of 
which  grew  the  beautiful  structures  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge.     Let  us  not  forget  the  fact. 

The  work  left  undone  by  those  institutions  has 
fallen  to  our  share  ;  and  that  is  no  less  a  work  than 
the  noble  and  responsible  mission  of  continuing 
to  transmit  the  boon  of  Catholic  education.  We 
inherit  the  faith,  and  with  the  faith  we  inherit  the 
duty  of  spreading  it,  teaching  it,  explaining  it,  and 
showing  in  its  light  the  true  and  the  false  in  the 
science  of  the  day.  To  be  recreant  to  this  mission 
were  an  injustice  to  generations  still  unborn.  It 
is  important  that  we  note  how  far  we  are  fulfilling 
our  duty  in  this  respect.  With  the  increase  of 
home  comforts  and  home  accommodations  our  col- 
leges have  kept  pace.  We  have  dispensed  with 
the  birch ;  our  rooms  are  heated  according  to  the 
most  approved  systems ;   our   benches   and  desks 


200  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

are  comfortable  and  not  unfrequently  elegant ;  at 
least  in  some  of  our  schools  the  fare  is  far  from 
being  inferior ;  in  a  word,  the  most  poorly 
equipped  among  our  schools  far  surpasses  those 
of  the  Middle  Ages  both  in  comfort  and  conven- 
ience. The  opportunities  for  education  have  be- 
come numerous  and  easy,  and  as  a  consequence  its 
advantages  have  become  to  be  undervalued.  That 
which  is  easily  procured  is  cheaply  prized.  Still, 
this  does  not  explain  altogether  the  small  attend- 
ance at  our  best  colleges.  Back  of  it  are  other 
causes  which  we  propose  touching  upon  in  the 
course  of  the  present  article. 

II. 

And  first  we  will  note  the  fact  that  incidental 
drawbacks  or  occasional  checks  in  the  advancement 
of  our  educational  establishments  need  not  cause 
any  grave  misapprehension  that  their  mission  is  go- 
ing to  be  a  failure.  Ultimately  they  will  become  all 
the  more  robust  for  having  gone  through  so  many 
hardships  in  their  younger  days.  Everything  last- 
ing experiences  at  one  time  or  other  a  struggle  for 
its  existence. 

The  past  decade  has  been- very  trying  upon  our 
colleges  and  convents,  and  high  schools.  The 
smaller  and  weaker  ones  have  been  driven  to  the 
wall.  The  larger  ones  have  barely  kept  themselves 
afloat,  and  many  of  them  have  been  so  far  tided 
over  upon  debts  in  which  they  are  still  threatened 
to   be  swamped.     These   financial  embarrassments 


OUR   COLLEGES.  201 

must  needs  keep  our  colleges  at  a  low  ebb.  Nor 
are  we  alone  in  this  respect.  Financial  embarrass- 
ment stares  the  larger  and  better  non-Catholic  insti- 
tutions in  the  face,  and  they  begin  to  grow  alarmed 
at  their  large  annual  expenses.  More  is  implied 
than  has  been  expressed  in  this  assertion  of  a  recent 
writer :  "  Though  the  income  of  the  richer  Ameri- 
can colleges  is  larger  than  the  revenue  of  the 
English,  many  colleges  on  these  shores  are  much 
poorer  than  the  poorest  of  the  English."  True, 
money  is  not  the  end  for  which  we  educate ;  but 
withal  money  is  an  essential  element  in  the  running 
and  wqrking  of  our  establishments  of  education. 
Being  so  regarded,  money  is  to  be  procured  and 
managed  as  an  indispensable  means.  P^re  Didon 
has  well  said:  "If  faith  is  the  chief  power  in  the 
land,  money  is  its  head-slave."  It  is  as  essential  for 
the  well-being  of  institutions  of  learning  as  for  that 
of  individuals,  families,  and  even  nations.  And  as 
our  Catholic  schools  lack  endowment,  it  is  only  by 
judicious  management  of  receipts  and  expenses 
that  they  can  be  sustained  and  put  in  condition  to 
do  the  good  for  which  they  have  been  called  into 
existence. 

But  wise  and  experienced  heads  find  the  problem 
of  economic  management  so  difficult  that  for  this 
and  other  reasons  they  forecast  a  dark  future  for 
our  colleges.  They  tell  us  that  the  day  for  board- 
ing schools  is  past ;  that  everywhere  these  schools 
are  dwindling  down ;  that  the  tendency  among 
parents  is  to  keep  children  at  home,  and  that  it  is 
only  as  day  schools  that  our  colleges  can  succeed. 


202  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

Nor  are  their  forebodings  without  ground.  The 
land  is  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  what  were  once 
flourishing  establishments. 

Still,  in  the  face  of  it  all,  we  entertain  bright 
hopes  for  the  future.  We  hold  that  our  Catholic 
colleges  have  not  yet  begun  their  real  work.  We 
perceive  vast  and  fertile  fields  of  labor  looming  up 
and  presenting  themselves  to  their  industry ;  it  rests 
with  them  only  to  take  advantage  of  the  favorable 
season,  put  their  hands  to  the  plough,  and  cultivate 
a  soil  that  promises  abundant  harvests.  And  let  it 
be  said  with  emphasis,  no  richer  soil  exists  in  the 
whole  domain  of  humanity  than  the  active  brain, 
the  clear  intellect,  and  the  open  heart  of  our  Amer- 
ican youth.  And  we  are  so  hopeful  of  our  colleges 
for  the  following  reasons : 

In  the  first  place,  our  Catholic  colleges  are  the 
cherished  objects  of  the  Church.  She  is  always 
interested  in  their  welfare ;  she  has  ever  kept  a 
vigilant  eye  on  them  and  guarded  their  rights  and 
privileges  against  all  encroachments  of  outside  in- 
fluence, be  it  from  governments  or  individuals. 
The  depositary  of  supernatural  truth,  she  is  anx- 
ious that  the  natural  truths  be  so  taught  that  the 
higher  teachings  of  faith  shall  work  into  their 
texture  and  give  complexion  to  the  whole.  She 
teaches  the  natural  truths  that  thereby  those  of 
faith  may  be  better  understood.  For  this  reason 
is  she  jealous  of  her  commission  as  teacher.  She 
transfers  it  to  no  sect  or  coterie.  Certainly,  not  to 
the  state.  But  she  fosters  religious  teaching  bodies, 
and  bestows  upon  them  special  favors,  and  blesses 


OUR    COLLEGES.  203 

their  work  with  a  special  blessing,  in  order  that 
they  may  the  more  efficiently  carry  out  her  de- 
signs. 

Now,  our  Catholic  colleges  are  under  the  care 
and  management  of  the  clergy  or  of  one  or  other 
of  the  numerous  teaching  orders  that  abound. 
And  the  Church  expects  that  they  shall  not  only 
foster  vocations  for  the  priesthood  and  for  reli- 
gious life,  but  that  they  shall  also  strengthen 
youths  to  be  good  and  useful  citizens  in  the  world. 
Parents  place  implicit  confidence  in  their  methods, 
and  are  no  less  sanguine  in  their  expectations. 
They  have  too  near  at  heart  the  best  interests  of 
their  children  not  to  consult  those  interests  on 
such  a  vital  issue  as  that  of  moulding  their  souls 
for  time  and  eternity.  They  know  that  in  placing 
their  children  under  the  protection  of  men  whose 
lives  are  devoted  to  the  general  good,  they  are  giv- 
ing them  a  safe  shelter  from  the  snares  that  beset 
the  tender  period  of  youth.  The  secular  spirit  of 
the  age  may  cry  out  for  state  schools  and  may 
hold  it  good  in  theory  that  education  be  divorced 
from  religion,  but  when  it  comes  to  the  practice 
the  enlightened  parent  will  rather  listen  to  the  ad- 
vice of  Quintilian  and  choose  the  school  in  which 
the  master  is  most  saintly  and  the  discipline  sever- 
est. And  the  pagan  Pliny  the  Younger  was  of  the 
same  opinion.  He  tells  a  Roman  mother  to  send 
her  son  to  the  school  in  which  good  discipline,  great 
modesty  and  purity  of  morals  exist.  And,  no  doubt, 
both  Quintilian  and  Pliny,  in  giving  this  advice, 
were  remembering  those  golden  words  of  Cicero. 


204  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

"  All  our  thoughts,  and  every  emotion  of  our 
minds,  should  be  devoted  either  to  the  forming  of 
plans  for  virtuous  actions,  and  such  as  belong  to  a 
good  and  happy  life,  or  else  to  the  pursuit  of 
science  and  knowledge." 

For  who  can  impart  the  habit  of  correct  think- 
ing and  pure  desires  better  than  the  teacher  whose 
life  is  devoted  to  that  sole  purpose?  Here  is  a 
standard  establishment  by  pagans.  Where  is  it 
more  likely  to  be  realized  than  in  our  Catholic  col- 
leges and  Catholic  convents?  Thus  it  is  that  even 
upon  grounds  recognized  by  respectable  pagans, 
we  find  a  raison  d'etre  for  our  Catholic  colleges. 

Again,  the  very  exigencies  of  the  times  require 
boarding  schools  to  fill  what  without  them  would 
be  an  embarrassing  want ;  and  if  boarding  schools, 
then,  in  a  special  manner.  Catholic  boarding 
schools.  Now  as  in  the  remote  past  is  there  a 
demand  for  public  institutions  of  learning  in  which 
youth,  away  from  the  distractions  of  home  life, 
may  give  themselves  more  exclusively  to  study, 
and  acquire  the  intellectual  force  and  the  robust- 
ness of  character  which  are  the  outcome  of  the 
healthy  training  of  large  numbers  together,  and 
which  issue  a  complete  development  of  each  one's 
energies.  Sometimes  it  is  ,the  nature  of  the  par- 
ent's occupation  that  necessitates  the  sending  of 
the  child  from  home ;  or  it  is  the  death  of  a  father 
or  mother  or  natural  guardian ;  or  the  child  grows 
up  beyond  parental  control ;  or  he  is  exposed  to  be 
ruined  by  bad  companions;  or  his  future  sphere  of 
usefulness  calls  for  a  more  thorough  education  than 


OUR    COLLEGES.  205 

he  can  acquire  in  his  own  neighborhood ;  each  and  all 
of  these  reasons  call  for  boarding  schools  in  which 
the  youth  finds  whatever  was  lacking  at  his  home. 

Moreover,  state  schools  abound  and  bid  fair 
to  increase  for  some  time  longer.  But  state  schools 
are  not  the  schools  for  our  Catholic  youth,  even 
though  they  be  taught  by  Catholic  teachers. 
There  is  a  vast  difference  between  a  Catholic  school 
and  a  school  having  Catholic  teachers.  We  should 
not  lose  sight  of  the  distinction.  Later  in  the 
course  of  our  remarks  we  shall  lay  stress  on  this ; 
suffice  it  to  say  here  that  the  more  attractive  and 
plausible  state  institutions  are  made,  the  greater 
need  is  there  that  Catholic  parents  keep  their  chil- 
dren away  from  them ;  the  greater  need  also  is 
there  that  in  our  Catholic  academies  and  colleges 
the  student  finds  in  a  higher  degree  the  instruction 
and  education  these  institutions  pretend  to  give. 

Nor  is  there  any  reason  why  our  schools  should 
not  be  superior  to  all  others.  We  have  a  fair  field 
and  no  other  hindrance  than  wholesome  competi- 
tion. If  we  cannot  hold  our  own  we  scarcely 
deserve  to  live.  Our  religious  teaching  bodies  are 
vowed  to  education ;  their  whole  lives  are  spent  in 
that  great  work ;  all  their  studies  are  made,  all  their 
methods  acquired  for  that  sole  purpose.  They 
seclude  themselves  from  the  world  and  permit 
neither  ties  of  family  and  friends  nor  external  occu- 
pations to  interfere  with  that  object  to  which  they 
have  consecrated  their  very  existence.  When  such 
bodies  labor  in  the  spirit  of  their  institution  they 
must  needs  succeed. 


206  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS.\ 

Finally,  the  very  nature  of  the  work  done  by  a 
well-disciplined  college,  and  the  outcome  of  that 
work,  are  such  as  always  make  it  a  desirable  resort 
for  a  large  class  of  youths.  There  they  are  trained 
into  the  habit  of  giving  serious  attention  to  duty  ; 
they  are  taught  to  be  regular  and  methodical  in 
their  daily  life ;  they  acquire  a  spirit  of  work  and 
mental  application ;  they  learn  to  do  things  with 
order;  they  are  compelled  to  keep  at  a  subject  till 
it  is  mastered,  and  in  this  manner  are  they  learning 
that  lesson  which  is  also  the  great  secret  of  all  suc- 
cess—  the  lesson  of  perseverance.  But  all  this 
cannot  be  done  without  discipline.  And  it  is  an  ad- 
mitted fact  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land,  that  only  in  our  Catholic  colleges  is  this 
discipline  made  an  object  of  earnest  study  and 
solicitude.  The  disgraceful  and  frequently  sad 
scenes  enacted  from  time  to  time  in  our  secular 
and  non-Catholic  colleges  bespeaks  the  necessity 
of  firm  and  judicious  discipline.  But  the  tendency 
of  these  institutions  is  to  abolish  all  restraints  and 
exact  from  their  students  account  neither  of  studies 
nor  behavior.  This  is  the  proper  course  to  pursue 
with  men  of  mature  judgments.  But  it  will  never 
do  for  youths  ranging  in  years  from  sixteen  to 
twenty.  Their  characters  are'  still  unformed,  their 
good  habits  are  not  yet  confirmed;  they  are  not 
penetrated  with  that  overmastering  sense  of  duty ; 
away  from  the  wholesomely  restraining  influence  of 
their  families  they  do  not  feel  the  sense  of  responsi- 
bility ;  they  imagine  they  may  for  the  moment  lose 
their  self-respect   without  compromising  relatives, 


OUR   COLLEGES.  20T 

and  led  on  by  a  few  reckless  spirits  they  rush  head- 
long into  habits  of  vice  and  self-indulgence  that 
drag  them  down  to  ruin. 

This  is  no  fancy  sketch.  A  prominent  public 
man,  in  presence  of  the  writer,  told  off  on  his 
fingers'  ends  youth  after  youth  whom  he  had 
known  and  seen  return  to  their  homes  from  one  of 
our  leading  universities,  blighted  —  wrecks  in  body 
and  soul  —  from  habits  of  excess,  and  all  sinking 
into  a  premature  grave.  Lines  of  wholesome 
restraint  must  be  drawn  somewhere.  Thoughtful 
non-Catholic  fathers  have  long  ago  consulted  the 
best  interests  of  their  daughters  and  sent  them  to 
convent  schools ;  they  now  feel  forced  to  send  their 
sons  to  our  Catholic  colleges,  where  they  are  con- 
vinced that  their  hearts  will  be  cultivated  as  well  as 
their  intellects. 

But  it  is  objected  that  the  discipline  of  our 
colleges  is  too  severe.  Now,  we  should  distinguish 
between  discipline  and  discipline.  The  discipline 
that  keeps  students  in  a  constant  purgatory,  either 
by  that  espionage  that  seems  to  dare  them  to  do 
wrong  or  those  petty  persecutions  that  irritate; 
the  discipline  that  sees  in  human  nature  nothing 
but  total  depravity,  that  is  always  suspecting,  that 
knows  only  coercive  measures,  such  discipline  is 
unworthy  of  the  name  and  of  the  manhood  of  him 
who  exercises  it,  as  it  is  unjust  to  those  who  are 
its  victims.  But  there  is  a  discipline  that  works 
upon  the  student's  finer  feelings ;  it  appeals  to  his 
honor ;  it  speaks  to  his  sense  of  self-respect ;  it 
stirs  up  within  him  a  laudable  pride ;  it  regulates 


208  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

his  ambition  and  wins  his  love.  It  is  the  discipline 
that  is  exercised  by  the  judicious  mind,  just  in  its 
rulings,  fair  towards  all,  and  prudent  in  its  deal- 
ings ;  that  is  mild  yet  firm ;  that  seeks  to  bring 
home  to  the  student  the  conviction  of  right  doing 
rather  than  the  makeshift  method  of  doing  right 
then  and  then  only.  This  is  the  discipline  that 
begets  methodical  habits,  exactness,  and  precision 
in  work,  promptness  in  meeting  engagements,  and 
close  attention  to  study.  This  is  the  discipline 
that  moulds  the  character  into  complete  manhood. 
Under  such,  there  need  be  no  apprehension  that 
the  student  shall  be  carried  into  opposite  excesses. 
The  student  so  carried  would  indulge  in  excesses 
still  more  extravagant  if  raised  without  any  disci- 
pline. There  are  youths  with  characters  so  weak 
that  they  possess  no  self-control  and  the  least 
breath  of  temptation  carries  them  away ;  they  are 
their  own  greatest  enemies,  and  to  be  saved  at  all 
they  must  be  saved  from  themselves.  Without  some 
restraining  influence  they  are  carried  straight  to 
destruction.  It  is  certainly  a  great  charity  to  ex- 
tend to  them  a  helping  hand,  to  teach  them  how 
to  control  themselves,  to  weaken  their  predomi- 
nant passions  and  to  subject  them  to  a  rule  and 
discipline  till  they  come  t6  find  both  rule  and 
discipline  no  longer  a  burden.  All  may  not  profit 
by  this  charity  ;  but  if  even  a  few  profit,  is  not  good 
done? 

And  now,  seeing  that  our  colleges  have  still  a 
noble  mission,  let  us  throw  out  a  few  remarks  on 
the  leading  lines  we   should   follow  in  order  that 


OUR   COLLEGES.  209 

they  best  attain  the  object  of  their  existence,  inci- 
dentally hinting  at  such  drawbacks  and  checks  as 
retard  our  progress.  And  if,  in  alluding  to  short- 
comings or  abuses  in  the  course  of  this  article,  we 
should  happen  to  wound  anybody's  feelings,  we 
here  and  now  disclaim  any  such  intention.  We 
write  without  personal  motive,  solely  for  the  gen- 
eral good,  and  in  all  charity. 

III. 

We  cannot  complain  about  the  number  of  our 
colleges ;  there  is  room  enough  for  all.  Nor  can 
we  find  fault  with  the  custom  of  giving  every  little 
boarding  school  the  misleading  title  of  college. 
This  is  one  of  the  outcomes  of  our  liberty  in  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  education.  Public  opinion  and 
public  patronage  decide  in  the  long  run  which  is 
the  college  in  reality,  and  which  in  name  only. 
Still  even  public  opinion  and  public  patronage  are 
sometimes  deceived  as  to  the  relative  grades  of  our 
institutions  of  learning,  and  a  mutual  understanding 
on  the  subject  would  be  a  great  convenience  all 
around.  The  smaller  boarding  schools  would  find 
it  every  way  to  their  advantage  were  they  to  fit 
and  announce  themselves  as  preparatory  to  some 
one  or  other  of  our  leading  colleges,  making  use  of 
the  text-books  and  giving  the  instructions  requisite 
for  entrance  to  their  freshman  class  or  course  in 
the  humanities.  In  this  manner  would  both  the 
preparatory  school  and  the  college  be  the  gainer. 
The  course  in  the  lower  school  would  be  limited  to 
E.  M.— 14 


210  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

the  essentials,  and  these  would  be  acquired  in  a 
given  time.  The  student,  having  passed  a  satis- 
factory examination,  would  pass  on  to  the  collegiate 
course  with  renewed  ardor. 

But  to  detain  him  in  the  elementary  school, 
going  over  the  same  ground  year  after  year,  or  get- 
ting the  merest  smattering  of  things  at  an  expense 
both  of  time  and  money  not  at  all  proportionate 
to  the  knowledge  acquired,  is  doing  him  a  great  in- 
justice. It  is  to  give  him  a  disgust  for  all  higher 
studies.  For  this  reason  it  should  never  be  said  of 
those  schools  that  they  retained  a  boy  a  day  longer 
than  was  really  for  his  advantage,  through  fear  of 
losing  his  patronage  or  any  other  mercenary 
motive.  Any  boarding  school  getting  a  good 
name  for  sending  up  well  prepared  youth  to  our 
best  colleges  will  not  lack  patronage. 

But  whilst  our  educational  establishments  must 
not  be  mercenary,  neither  need  they  be  improvi- 
dent or  extravagant.  In  order  to  do  all  the  good 
it  is  within  the  sphere  of  their  mission  to  do  they 
ought  to  be  self-supporting  and  therefore  managed 
on  a  sound  financial  basis.  Some  parents  are  very 
thoughtless  on  this  point.  They  do  not  calculate 
the  large  outlays  of  a  college  in  good  standing. 
They  regard  it  simply  in  the  light  of  a  boarding 
house.  They  know  one  can  board  for  so  much  a 
week,  and  they  also  know  that  one  needs  pay  only 
so  much  a  quarter  for  tuition  in  a  day  school,  and 
putting  this  and  that  together  they  do  not  see  why 
our  colleges  should  charge  so  much  more.  They 
imagine  some  deduction  ought  to  be  made  from 


OUR   COLLEGES.  211 

the  published  prices.  It  does  not  occur  to  them 
that  a  large  household  of  servants  has  to  be  main- 
tained ;  that  professors  and  tutors  are  salaried ;  that 
expensive  apparatus  for  experiment  in  chemistry 
and  philosophy  need  to  be  procured ;  that  a  library 
has  to  be  increased  and  preserved;  that  every  year 
calls  for  improvements  on  buildings  and  premises; 
that  the  wear  and  tear  in  the  furniture  of  school 
rooms,  dormitories,  parlors,  have  to  be  made  good ; 
that  kitchen  utensils,  delft  and  table  articles  need 
to  be  renewed,  not  to  speak  of  bedding,  fuel  or 
provisions.  When  these  and  many  other  all-de- 
vouring means  of  expending  money  are  considered, 
what  becomes  of  the  stipend  paid  half  yearly  for 
the  student? 

Glancing  over  the  advertising  columns  of  our 
Catholic  weeklies  we  find  that  the  average  charge 
of  our  leading  colleges  is  three  hundred  dollars  a 
year.  Where  there  are  no  endowments  every 
dollar  of  this  amount  is  required  in  order  to  keep 
those  colleges,  with  their  comparatively  small  num- 
bers, abreast  of  the  times.  But  it  is  the  experience 
of  all  our  colleges  that  they  do  not  get  every  dollar 
of  that  amount ;  that  thousands  of  the  income  are 
lost  in  unpaid  debts,  and  thousands  more  are 
canceled  on  the  entrance  of  students  by  reductions 
made  on  the  regular  fees.  In  consequence  our  in- 
stitutions are  cramped  in  their  action  and  find 
themselves  reduced  to  the  alternative  of  narrowing 
the  sphere  of  their  activity  or  rushing  into  debt. 
There  is  only  one  remedy  for  this  evil ;  it  is  that 
our  schools   hold   by   their   published   prices  and 


212  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

make  no  abatement  except  in  extreme  cases.  It  is 
injurious  to  our  best  colleges  to  place  them  on  a 
level  with  cheap  boarding  schools.  It  introduces 
into  them  a  large  class  of  students  who  are 
possessed  of  neither  means  nor  inclination  to  make 
the  full  course,  and  who,  in  consequence,  keep  the 
upper  classes  sparsely  supplied.  There  are,  and 
always  will  be,  exceptions  to  the  general  rule. 
There  are  cases  daily  arising  in  college  life  in  which 
charity  and  peculiar  circumstances  call  for  reduc- 
tions. And  such  charity  brings  a  blessing  on  the 
whole  school.  But  by  all  such  exceptions  no  prin- 
ciple is  violated,  as  would  occur,  for  instance,  were 
a  school  to  make  abatement  as  a  matter  of  barter 
or  with  a  view  of  underbidding  a  rival  establish- 
ment. Such  conduct  is  demoralizing  to  the  insti- 
tution that  would  practice  it.  A  parent  is  unable  to 
pay  the  full  charge ;  be  it  so,  is  there  not  a  cheaper 
establishment  to  which  he  may  with  all  safety  be 
recommended?  After  all,  provided  good  is  done, 
it  matters  little  by  what  instrument  it  is  done.  In 
localities  in  which  provisions  are  cheap  and  the  soil 
is  fertile  and  labor  plentiful,  institutions  may  be 
established — and  such  the  writer  knows  to  exist — 
that  can  receive  younger  boys  at  a  comparatively 
low  rate.  In  these  institutions  commercial  classes 
might  be  formed  for  those  desiring  a  business  edu- 
cation, whilst  those  aiming  at  a  professional  career 
might  be  well-grounded  in  the  rudiments  of  Latin 
and  Greek  and  afterwards  sent  to  the  colleges. 
Thus  would  a  good  understanding  between  the  two 
classes  of  institutions  lead   to    mutual   encourage- 


OUR    COLLEGES.  213 

ment  and  support.  In  the  course  of  time,  with  a 
network  of  preparatory  schools  as  so  many  feeders, 
the  college  would  be  enabled  to  dispense  altogether 
with  its  own  preparatory  department.  And  this 
would  be  a  great  boon.  For  where  the  preparatory 
department  is  in  immediate  contact  with  the  col- 
lege proper  the  tendency  is  to  lower  its  grade,  and 
it  is  only  by  great  effort  that  the  college  can  raise 
itself  above  the  level  of  the  best  English  public 
schools,  as  Eton,  Harrow,  or  Rugby.  Under  pres- 
ent arrangements  very  few  of  our  colleges  are 
prepared  to  dispense  with  their  preparatory  depart- 
ments. Could  the  preparatory  school  be  placed  in 
a  separate  building,  at  some  distance  from  the 
college,  and  under  a  regime  entirely  distinct  from 
that  of  the  college,  the  advantages  would  be  very 
great.  Then  would  it  enjoy  the  prestige  of  the 
college  without  interfering  with  its  autonomy  as  a 
college.  The  writer  remembers  such  an  arrange- 
ment at  Stonyhurst.  For  this  and  like  improve- 
ments our  colleges  require  endowment. 

And  why  not  endowment?  Among  whom  has 
the  idea  of  endowment  been  better  understood  in 
the  past  than  among  Catholics?  In  every  land  may 
be  seen  monuments  of  learning  that  bear  witness  to 
the  zeal,  the  piety  and  the  enlightened  spirit  of 
Catholics.  Let  us  for  the  present  confine  ourselves 
to  those  of  England.  A  Catholic  king,  Henry  VI., 
endowed  Eton  and  King's  College,  Cambridge ;  a 
cardinal  of  the  Catholic  Church,  Wolsey,  erected 
Christ  Church,  Oxford  ;  a  Catholic  prelate,  William 
of   Wykeham,    founded  New   College,    Oxford ;   a 


2l4  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS, 

Catholic  association  or  guild  established  the  college 
of  Corpus  Christi  at  Cambridge.  Catholic  ladies 
were  not  less  generous.  Elizabeth  de  Burgh  en- 
dowed Clare  Hall,  Cambridge ;  Margaret  of  Anjou 
and  Elizabeth  Woodville  founded  Queen's  College. 
But  the  whole  list  is  a  long  one ;  everywhere  it  tells 
the  same  story ;  everywhere  it  speaks  of  Catholic 
faith  and  Catholic  piety  inspiring  acts  of  the 
noblest  generosity,  "  that  the  pearl  of  science,  which 
they  have  through  study  and  learning  discovered 
and  acquired,  may  not  lie  under  a  bushel,  but  be 
extended  farther  and  wider,  and  when  extended 
give  light  to  them  that  walk  in  the  dark  paths  of 
ignorance." 

Is  not  the  faith  that  inspired  these  sentiments 
and  embodied  them  in  such  noble  works  a  living 
faith  still  ?  It  is  both  living  and  active,  and  the 
results  of  its  life  and  activity  will  be  no  less  striking 
in  the  future  than  they  have  been  in  the  past.  The 
number  of  our  wealthy  Catholics  is  increasing  daily. 
They  have  yet  to  be  educated  up  to  the  conviction 
that  the  endowment  of  Catholic  high  schools  and 
Catholic  colleges  is  a  necessity  both  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  faith  of  their  sons  and  the  intelligent 
promotion  of  religious  truth  only  little  less  urgent 
than  the  establishment  of  parochial  schools.  With 
time  this  conviction  will  come  home  to  them ;  we 
shall  yet  see  them  rival  the  Girards,  the  Astors,  and 
the  Coopers. 

Last  year  at  the  commencement  of  two  of  our 
colleges,  before  large  and  respectable  audiences,  the 
Right  Reverend  Bernard  J.  McQuaid,  the  zealous 


OUR    COLLEGES.  215 

Bishop  of  Rochester,  threw  out  a  thought-spark 
which  we  would  gladly  see  burn  into  the  business 
and  bosoms  of  our  wealthy  Catholics.  With  an 
eloquence  peculiarly  his  own,  which  we  cannot  at- 
tempt to  reproduce  in  a  hastily  sketched  article,  he 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  if  our  asylums,  our 
hospitals,  our  schools  and  convents  and  colleges 
exist  and  flourish,  it  is  not  due  to  the  wealth  of  our 
wealthy  Catholics.  They  have  had  no  hand  or  part 
in  the  work.  Something  more  precious  than  their 
gold  has  been  wrought  into  these  institutions.  The 
talents,  the  energy,  the  zeal,  the  very  lives  of  the 
religious  men  and  women  who  sacrificed  themselves 
and  denied  themselves  that  these  buildings  might 
grace  the  land,  have  gone  for  their  erection.  Price- 
less treasures,  these;  only  in  heaven  can  their  just 
value  be  estimated.  Surely,  since  men  and  women 
are  found  who  give  their  lives  that  the  good  may  be 
done,  why  may  not  men  and  women  be  found  who 
shall  give  their  dollars  for  the  same  noble  object  ? 
It  is  an  efficacious  means  for  our  wealthy  Catholics 
thus  to  bring  a  blessing  upon  themselves  and  their 
children  for  generations.  Let  us  hope  that  this 
timely  suggestion  of  the  eloquent  bishop  may  yet 
prove  to  be  the  rod  of  Moses  that  will  strike  the 
Horeb  of  Catholic  wealth  and  draw  therefrom  the  liv- 
ing waters  of  an  active  faith  and  an  ardent  charity. 
Finally,  the  good  odor  of  our  colleges  must,  so 
to  speak,  be  diffused  throughout  the  land.  Each 
institution  must  cultivate  an  esprit  de  corps 
amongst  its  members ;  then  will  every  student  feel 
proud  of  the  school  in  which  he  received  his  educa- 


216  ESSATS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

tion,  and  sound  its  praises  far  and  wide.  Espe- 
cially should  this  be  the  spirit  animating  the  alumni 
who  have  received  its  benefits  in  full  share  even  to 
overflowing.  And  we  must  say  it  is  seldom  one 
meets  with  an  ungrateful  alumnus.  Such  a  phe- 
nomenon would  reveal  more  clearly  the  baseness  of 
his  character  than  any  shortcomings  of  the  foster 
mother  that  fed  him  with  the  milk  and  the  meats 
of  science  and  letters  till  he  was  able  to  walk  forth 
a  man.  We  would  regard  him  with  the  same  loath- 
ing with  which  we  would  regard  a  bad  son  or  a 
treacherous  friend.  A  sinister  vein  streaks  his 
nature.  Voltaire  ridiculed  and  maligned  his  Jesuit 
teachers  before  he  spat  in  the  face  of  our  Lord. 

Every  student  must  feel  that  the  college  in 
which  he  is  receiving  his  education  is  for  him  the 
best.  This  entirely  depends  upon  the  president 
and  faculty.  They  must  work  in  accord.  Any 
discordant  element  should  be  removed.  Not  that 
each  professor  should  not  have  the  liberty  of  his 
opinion  or  that  the  prevalent  opinion  of  the  fac- 
ulty should  domineer  over  that  of  one  or  two  m  a 
minority ;  as  if,  on  matters  of  opinion  and  purely 
speculative,  for  example,  one  professor  should  hold 
Homer  to  be  a  mere  eponym  and  the  //tad  to  be  a 
series  of  ballads  strung  together,  and  the  others, 
believing  him  a  great  poet,  should  refuse  him  of 
the  Wolffian  theory  to  air  his  views  before  his 
classes ;  or  in  the  face  of  all  recent  research  and 
discovery  Ninus  or  Parthollan  or  Romulus  should 
still  be  considered  a  conqueror  rather  than  a  myth, 
and   the  professor  of  history  be  compelled   so  to 


OUR    COLLEGES.  217 

regard  one  and  all  of  them ;  or  any  open  question  in 
science  or  letters.  In  this  freedom  of  discussion 
interest  is  excited  and  intellect  quickened.  And 
wherever  professors  are  well  up  in  their  subjects 
there  must  needs  be  differences.  But  above  the 
clash  of  opinion  should  reign  the  harmony  of  prin- 
ciple and  purpose,  the  unity  of  effort,  and  the 
earnestness  that  brings  with  it  conviction.  Each 
teacher  should  feel  that  he  was  giving  out  the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth ; 
each  pupil  should  be  convinced  that  his  teacher 
was  speaking  to  him  with  the  authority  of  one 
knowing  whereof  he  spoke.  Given  such  a  body  of 
men,  with  a  unity  of  plan  and  a  unity  of  method 
in  following  out  that  plan  and  a  central  thought  in- 
spiring both  plan  and  method,  and  you  have  all 
that  is  requisite  to  create  a  school  whose  influence 
must  needs  be  felt.  And  this  influence  spreads 
abroad,  reaches  the  people,  and  produces  confi- 
dence in  the  school  so  governed.  Such  a  school 
need  never  resort  to  the  modern  system  of  canvass- 
ing all  over  the  country. 

This  is  a  system  very  degrading  to  our  Catholic 
education.  In  whatever  light  it  is  viewed  it  looks 
odious.  That  the  friends  of  a  school  should  say  a 
good  word  for  the  school ;  that  they  should  recom- 
mend it  on  all  occasions  ;  that  they  should  even 
interest  themselves  in  procuring  it  pupils,  is  natural 
and  proper ;  as  has  been  seen,  it  is  even  desirable. 
But  that  men  should  run  around,  snapping  up  all 
who  come  in  their  way,  inducing  students  to  leave 
schools  in  which  they  are  well  cared  for  and  are 


218  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

making  reasonable  progress,  by  underbidding  or 
sometimes  even  at  the  cost  of  charity  and  truth,  is 
an  act  demoralizing  as  it  is  unjust.  Such  men 
assume  a  terrible  responsiblity.  They  take  on 
themselves  the  changing  of  a  student's  whole 
career.  Are  they  going  to  better  it?  And  if  not, 
why  bring  about  an  action  so  serious  in  its  con- 
sequences? Should  the  student  be  wrecked  by 
vicious  or  intemperate  habits  contracted  in  the 
school  of  their  suggestion,  what  an  awful  account 
they  shall  have  to  render  if,  for  the  sake  of  a  few 
dollars,  they  have  occasioned  the  removal  of  that 
student  from  a  school  in  which  he  was  doing  well. 
We  feel  that  we  have  touched  on  a  delicate  point, 
and  we  would  not  be  misunderstood.  There  are 
often  sufficient  reasons  for  changing  the  school ; 
by  all  means,  in  such  cases,  suggest  one  better 
suited  for  the  boy  ;  suggest  the  one  with  which 
you  are  connected,  or  in  which  you  feel  greatest 
interest ;  always,  however,  be  careful  to  leave  well 
enough  alone.     To  this  we  place  no  objection. 

If  parents  choose  to  send  their  sons  to  schools 
so  recommended  it  is  their  affair.  But  does  it  ever 
occur  to  them  that  an  institution  resorting  to  such 
means  must  have  something  radically  wrong  in 
its  system?  If  it  were  well, managed  think  you  it 
would  need  all  these  eloquent  appeals  and  glowing 
representations?  A  well  equipped  and  thoroughly 
organized  school  cannot  hide  its  light  under  a 
bushel.  Neither  the  remoteness  of  its  location, 
nor  difficulty  of  access,  will  prevent  its  being 
known  and  frequented.     Students  seek  the  school 


OUR   COLLEGES.  219 

and  not  the  school  the  students.  This  is  a  law  to 
which  we  recognize  no  exception.  We  must  add 
that  it  is  only  with  a  class  of  simple-minded  parents 
that  these  methods  succeed.  Their  credulity  is 
exercised.  They  believe  all  that  is  said  to  them. 
And  so,  when  certain  of  these  drummers  will  forget 
themselves  and  their  cloth  and  the  dictates  of 
Christian  charity  so  far,  and  stoop  so  low  as  to 
disparage  another  institution,  or  even  a  whole 
teaching  body,  it  does  not  open  the  eyes  of  the 
unsuspecting  parents.  It  fails  to  strike  them  that 
the  man  who  can  malign  his  neighbor  is  not  the 
man  to  give  their  child  an  elevated  moral  tone. 
This  thing  is  all  wrong.  It  is  disreputable.  It 
destroys  our  dignity  as  Christian  educators.  It 
makes  of  our  education  a  species  of  low  barter. 
We  gain  nothing  and  we  lose  much  by  its  preva- 
lence. There  is  room  enough  for  us  all,  if  each  of 
us  only  keeps  his  place  and  works  within  his 
proper  sphere.  Then  there  will  be  no  clashing  of 
interests,  no  necessity  of  resorting  to  degrading 
measures  in  order  to  fill  vacant  seats  and  replenish 
empty  purses.  Let  us  seek  before  all  and  above 
all  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice,  and  we 
shall  lack  in  naught  else.  This  is  the  promise  of 
Truth  Himself,  and  the  promise  has  never  been 
belied. 

IV. 

But  the  means  by  which  our  colleges  can  best 
continue  the  work  of  the  mediaeval  school  is  that 
they  become  more    Catholic     No  fault  is  to  be 


220  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

found  with  our  secular  instruction.  It  is  thorough 
as  far  as  it  goes.  Our  students  are  well  grounded, 
and  our  alumni  hold  their  own  in  every  calling  and 
profession.  But  might  we  not  make  them  more 
Catholic?  Our  teachers  should  feel  that  theirs  is,  in 
the  words  of  His  Holiness,  Leo  XHI.,  a  most  holy 
ministry — sanctissimum  docendi  ministerium  —  and 
our  schools  accordingly  should  be  regarded  as 
sanctuaries,  which  they  are  in  very  deed.  Every- 
thing in  the  Catholic  classroom  ought  to  be 
stamped  with  the  seal  of  Catholicity.  The  pro- 
fessors must  be  Catholic  ;  the  text-books  Catholic ; 
the  very  atmosphere  Catholic.  Everything  must 
speak  to  the  student  of  the  greatness,  the  honor, 
the  glory  of  that  name  till  he  comes  to  regard  it  as 
his  grandest  title  and  noblest  heritage.  Consist- 
ency must  reign  in  everything. 

The  better  to  understand  what  we  mean  let 
us  enter  a  Protestant  school.  Examine  the  text- 
books. They  all  possess  a  decidedly  Protestant 
coloring.  The  eloquence  of  Protestant  divines,  the 
inspiration  of  Protestant  poets,  and  the  versions  of 
Protestant  historians  fill  the  pages  of  their  literary 
works ;  their  histories  give  such  a  narration  of  facts 
as  tends  to  laud  Luther  and  glorify  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  their  geographies  go  out  of  their  way  to 
malign  Catholic  countries  and  Catholic  peoples, 
and  praise  all  belonging  to  Protestant  countries 
and  Protestant  peoples.  Listen  to  their  lessons. 
They  are  charged  with  Protestant  prejudices.  Is 
the  theory  of  terrestrial  gravity  explained?  The 
professor  of  physics  goes  out  of  his  way  to  dwell 


OUR    COLLEGES.  221 

upon  the  imaginary  or  implied  tortures  of  Galileo 
and  the  wickedness  of  his  persecutors.  Are  Kep- 
ler's laws  discussed  ?  The  professor  of  astronomy 
will  step  aside  to  say  that  Kepler  was  a  conscien- 
tious Protestant,  careful,  however,  to  conceal  the 
fact  that  the  only  asylum  in  which  he  found  refuge 
from  his  Protestant  persecutors  was  a  Jesuit  col- 
lege. And  so  on  through  the  whole  course.  Here 
is  consistency  at  least.  Not  only  is  the  school 
Protestant,  but  professor  and  student  glory  in  the 
fact.  They  believe  in  their  convictions ;  they  are 
proud  of  them ;  and  let  us  say  that  so  far  as  they 
are  earnest  and  consistent  are  they  to  be  recom. 
mended. 

Our  Catholic  schools  should  be  equally  stanch 
in  their  Catholicity.  Their  text-books  should 
breathe  throughout  respect  for  religion  and  love 
for  the  holy  Church.  Mere  colorless  text-books, 
that  possess  no  other  merit  than  that  of  being 
silent  concerning  the  nature  and  the  work  of  that 
Church,  do  not  suffice ;  still  less  tolerated  should  be 
any  book  reflecting  on  her  doctrine  or  her  children. 
That  would  indeed  be  a  terrible  farce  which  would 
give  place  in  a  Catholic  school  to  books  hostile  to 
the  Catholic  religion  simply  with  a  view  of  concili- 
ating the  non-Catholic  element  in  attendance.  It 
were  a  mockery  to  call  a  school  Catholic  and  use 
books  in  that  school,  whether  as  readers,  histories, 
or  literatures,  from  which  passages  are  hourly  read 
assailing  all  that  is  dearest  to  the  Catholic  heart ; 
and  this  under  the  pretext  of  not  wounding  the 
susceptibilities   of    Protestant    patrons.     It  -is  all 


222"  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

wrong.  It  is  a  scandal.  The  two  or  three  feeble 
dilutions  of  catechetical  instructions  given  each 
week  are  only  so  much  sugar  coating  the  poisonous 
pill,  and  causing  it  to  be  swallowed  with  all  the 
greater  relish. 

Should  such  a  state  of  things  exist  or  come  to 
exist,  of  what  earthly  benefit  would  our  Catholic 
schools  be?  How  many  children  would  glory  in  a 
faith  so  trampled  on?  How  many  take  pride  in  a 
creed  so  slighted?  How  many  feel  honored  in  a 
name  which  their  teachers  seem  disposed  to  sink 
into  oblivion  ?  It  is  based  on  a  foolish  and  a  false 
notion.  Every  Protestant  parent  sending  his  child 
to  a  Catholic  school  expects  to  find  the  instruction 
thoroughly  Catholic,  and,  far  from  being  pleased 
with  the  reverse,  he  becomes  shocked  to  find  that 
even  in  the  Catholic  school  he  meets  with  men  who 
trim  their  very  principles.  Such  behavior  justly 
brings  contempt  upon  the  men  practicing  it ; 
unjustly,  also,  it  places  the  Church  in  a  false 
light. 

We  do  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  our  mod- 
ern English  literature  is  in  great  measure  Protes- 
tant. Nor  would  we  exclude  classical  Protestant 
authors  from  our  Catholic  youths.  The  wiser  plan 
is  to  have  the  authors  read  a'nd  commented  upon 
in  the  light  of  the  Catholic  doctrine.  It  prepares 
young  men  to  be  enabled  afterwards  to  discuss 
them  with  discrimination.  They  have  learned  m 
the  light  of  truth  how  to  regard  whatever  is  brilliant 
or  fascinating  in  those  authors;  tinsel  and  false 
ornament  and  shallow  argument    and   weak  asser- 


OUR   COLLEGES.  223 

tion,  the  half-told  truth  and  the  misrepresented 
fact,  the  rhetorical  glitter  that  concealed  the  hollow 
and  misleading  statement,  have  one  and  all  been 
laid  bare  in  that  light ;  having  once  beheld  them  as 
they  really  are,  young  men  are  no  longer  dazzled  by 
them  and  henceforth  take  them  for  their  real 
worth.  In  the  white  light  of  Catholic  truth  all 
human  lights  are  bedimmed  or  dwindle  down  to 
their  natural  insignificance. 

For  this  reason  Catholics  need  never  dread  the 
light.  They  are  born  into  the  light;  they  are 
created  for  the  light ;  they  should  live  in  the  light. 
The  rays  of  reason  and  faith  — the  natural  and  the 
supernatural  light  —  both  proceeding  from  the 
same  Uncreated  Sun,  flood  every  Catholic  intellect. 
Oculists  now  teach  that  it  is  not  excess  of  light  but 
rather  a  want  of  it  that  injures  the  eyes.  Be  that 
as  it  may  it  holds  true  of  the  intellectual  vision 
that  it  is  the  darkness  of  ignorance  or  the  haze  of 
imperfect  knowledge,  rather  than  the  full  light  of 
truth,  that  leads  it  to  error. 

Occasionally  a  lukewarm  Catholic  will  complain 
of  his  having  had  too  much  religious  teaching  in 
his  youth,  and  will  lay  upon  that  fact  the  blame  of 
his  present  indifference.  Such  a  statement  seems 
to  contradict  what  we  have  advanced.  But  it  is 
not  true.  Coming  to  examine  it  for  what  it  is 
worth  we  find  that  perhaps  he  is  not  willing  to  prac- 
tice the  dictates  of  his  religion,  and  he  makes  this 
an  excuse  for  throwing  off  its  wholesome  re- 
straints; or  if  his  mind  is  unusually  active  he  has 
become  disgusted  with  the  insignificant  instructions 


224  BSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

that  he  received ;  he  craved  for  robust  logical  teach- 
ing, with  a  starting  point  and  a  connecting  link,  and 
he  received  only  a  few  crumbs  of  sentiment  and 
assertion.  Disgust  followed,  and  hence  his  present 
attitude.  Man  is  created  for  religious  truth  ;  to  live 
in  its  light  is  as  natural  to  his  intellect  as  it  is  to  his 
lungs  to  breathe  the  air.  Religion  should  be  the 
all-pervading,  all-inspiring  element  in  his  thinking. 
And,  in  being  such,  it  perfects  both  thought  and 
life.  Men  speak  of  religion  oppressing,  embarrass- 
ing, interfering.  We  are  told  that  this  atmosphere 
of  ours  presses  upon  our  bodies  with  the  enormous 
pressure  of  fifteen  pounds  to  every  square  inch  of 
surface.  We  do  not  cry  out  against  it  ;  we  do  not 
find  it  to  interfere  with  motion  or  action.  Nature's 
laws  have  fitted  us  for  the  burden.  We  feel  op- 
pressed if  it  becomes  too  rarefied,  or  if  we  breathe 
it  in  an  impure  state.  So  it  is  with  religion. 
Whilst  it  remains  wholesome  it  imparts  vigor  and 
energy.  Milton  did  not  find  his  religious  teach- 
ings to  prevent  his  poetical  imagination  from 
soaring  into  the  sublimest  regions,  and  where  his 
poetry  is  deficient  his  theological  training  is  also 
found  deficient.  Dante  did  not  soar  any  the 
less  high  because  of  his  thorough  religious  and 
scholastic  discipline.  Copernicus  was  no  less 
the  great  astronomer  for  having  been  the  pious 
priest. 

Man's  religious  nature  is  a  sequence  of  his 
rational  nature.  Being  intelligent  he  recognizes 
a  Creator;  having  a  moral  sense  he  recognizes 
in  that  Creator  a  judge  to  Whom  he  is  accountable ; 


OUR   COLLEGES.  225 

Who  is  infinitely  holy  and  infinitely  just,  the 
Arbiter  of  his  life  and  the  Discerner  of  his  every 
thought,  word  and  deed  ;  in  Whom  he  lives,  moves, 
and  has  his  being ;  on  Whom  he  depends,  to  Whom 
he  looks  for  light  in  his  doubts,  strength  in  his 
weakness,  assistance  in  his  helplessness ;  and,  recog- 
nizing this  dependence,  he  is  led  to  be  devout 
towards  that  Creator  and  to  offer  Him  prayer 
and  sacrifice.  Passion  may  weaken  in  him  this 
religious  sense,  or  worldly  affairs  may  partially  sup- 
press it,  or  secular  habits  of  thought  may  for  the 
time  lead  to  forgetfulness  of  it,  but  for  all  that  the 
religious  element  does  not  cease  to  act  in  his  nature. 
Even  Strauss  admits  that  Atheism  requires  its 
religion.  A  consequence  of  the  utmost  importance 
follows  from  this  truth.  It  is  that  intellectual  de- 
velopment, as  such,  far  from  being  incompatible  with 
deep  religious  belief,  aids  and  confirms  it. 

The  loftiest  intellects  in  all  ages  have  the  deepest 
religious  convictions.  It  is  deficiency  of  reason  or 
want  of  thorough,  rigid,  logical  exercise  of  reason, 
or  tampering  with  the  primary  operations  of  reason, 
or  confounding  fancy  and  imagination  with  reason,  or 
allowing  prejudices,  avowed  or  secret,  to  interfere 
with  the  plain  conclusions  of  reason,  that  induces 
habits  of  superficial  thinking.  Superficial  thought 
leads  to  contempt  for  every  issue  not  easily  grasped ; 
it  precludes  all  seriousness.  Thence  follows  that 
inert,  half  paralyzed  condition  of  mind  that  refuses 
to  probe  any  question  to  its  foundation,  and  ends  in 
being  content  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders  and  a 
"  Que  sais-je?  "  This  is  the  intellectually  death-in-life 
E.  M.— 15 


226  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

state  of  the  skeptic.  And  this  sterility  of  the  mind 
in  its  highest  operations  is  soon  followed,  if  it  is  not 
already  accompanied,  by  a  drying  up  of  all  the 
nobler  impulses  and  emotions  of  the  heart. 

The  profound  and  rational  study  of  our  holy 
religion  can  alone  preserve  our  Catholic  students 
from  this  deplorable  state.  The  Little  Catechism 
and  its  accompanying  explanations  do  not  suffice. 
They  are  simply  the  foundation  on  which  to  erect 
something  grand  and  imposing.  After  the  youthful 
intellect  has  been  well  grounded  in  the  Little  Cate- 
chism, a  larger  and  more  developed  work  is  placed  in 
his  hands,  the  Catechism  of  Perseverance  or  Perry's 
Instructions,  for  instance ;  this  gives  rise  to  fuller 
explanations  of  the  principles  and  dogmas  of  our 
faith  ;  in  connection  with  these  are  discussed  the  rise 
and  progress  of  the  various  heresies,  especially  those 
that  led  to  the  definitions  of  faith ;  the  refutation  of 
these  heresies  in  clear  and  succinct  statements  is 
also  given ;  after  which  the  history  of  the  Church  is 
outlined  ;  her  various  attitudes  toward  the  temporal 
powers  of  Europe  are  explained,  her  policies  defined, 
and  her  position  in  mediaeval  and  modern  times 
clearly  laid  down,  the  student  being  constantly  re- 
minded that  whilst  the  Church  is  divine  in  her  origin, 
divine  in  her  doctrine,  divine-  in  her  authority,  the  in- 
struments with  which  she  works  are  weak  human 
mortals.  Hence  the  scandals  he  reads  of,  the  blun- 
derings,  the  short-sighted  policies  in  temporal  affairs. 
But  from  them  all  he  learns  still  more  clearly  the 
divine  nature  of  an  institution  that  remains  untar- 
nished in  her  moral  code,  unchanging  in  her  dogmas 


OUR    COLLEGES.  227 

in  the  midst  of  so  much  corruption.  He  learns  the 
historical  origin  of  Protestantism,  the  value  and  im- 
portance of  man's  free  will,  the  enormity  of  sin,  and 
the  distinction  of  God 's  knowing  and  God  *s  willing ; 
he  learns  how  God  must  have  established  a  definite 
church  to  dispense  His  graces,  and,  therefore,  why 
every  church  bearing  the  name  of  Christian  cannot 
be  the  true  one ;  he  learns  how  to  distinguish  and  ap- 
ply the  notes  of  the  true  Church,  and  to  find  them  all 
realized  as  in  the  Holy,  Roman,  Catholic  and  Apos- 
tolic Church ;  he  learns  the  nature  and  scope  of  infal- 
libility, and  how  to  distinguish  it  from  the  impecca- 
bility so  falsely  attributed  in  ignorance  to  the  Pope. 
He  is  thus  enabled  to  meet  the  false  religious  tenets 
of  the  day.  But  this  is  not  enough.  The  irreligious 
teachings  must  be  met  as  well.  And  this  calls  for  a 
superior  course  of  religious  instruction  in  our 
colleges. 

The  superior  course  is  placed  on  a  philosophical 
basis.  History  and  literature  and  science  and  art 
are  all  converged  to  this  focus,  and  discussed,  and 
when  necessary  reconstructed  in  its  light.  It  draws 
out  the  evidences  of  religion,  natural  and  revealed ; 
it  develops  the  proofs  for  the  existence  of  God ;  for 
the  immortality  and  spirituality  of  the  soul;  for  the 
necessity  of  a  revealed  religion  in  the  present  order 
of  things;  it  explains  the  inspiration  of  Holy  Writ; 
it  dwells  upon  the  harmony  and  unity  of  the  Church 
in  her  doctrine,  her  dogma,  and  her  ritual ;  it  de- 
fines the  relations  of  faith  to  science  and  of  reason 
to  faith;  it  traces  the  limits  of  the  human  intelli- 
gence   in   dealing   with   religious    and    theological 


228  ESSArs  miscellaneous. 

questions;  it  teaches  how  to  distinguish  between 
facts  and  theory,  speculation  and  truth,  certitude 
and  opinions.  All  these  fundamental  issues  are  dis- 
cussed with  a  view  to  the  Atheism,  Positivism,  and 
Agnosticism  of  the  day.  And  those  theories  are 
refuted  in  their  principles  and  premises  rather  than 
in  their  general  conclusions  or  casual  statements. 
Only  in  this  manner  are  they  eradicated  root  and 
branch.  Due  regard  is  also  had  to  their  methods. 
Scientific  method  is  met  with  scientific  method,  and 
by  scientific  reasoning ;  not  with  prejudice  or 
presumption,  or  the  mere  dogmatism  that  asserts 
without  knowledge.  An  ignorant  scoffer  may  be 
covered  with  ridicule  to  some  purpose,  one's  pre- 
sumption may  be  snubbed  with  effect,  but  ignorance 
or  error,  when  it  is  earnest  and  well  meaning,  and 
open  to  conviction,  should  be  met  with  fact  and 
solid  argument  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  betrays 
itself. 

Different  periods  have  different  intellectual  char- 
acteristics. Controversy  in  the  sixteenth  century 
was  violent  even  to  vulgarity ;  in  the  seventeenth 
it  expressed  itself  in  ponderous  tomes  and  the  cita- 
tions of  overwhelming  authority ;  in  the  eighteenth 
it  indulged  in  flippancy  and  mocking.  In  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century  the  superficial  spirit  was 
predominant.  In  consequence  we  find  the  magic 
pen  of  Chateaubriand  charming  France  into  respect 
and  love  for  the  Church  and  her  ceremonies  by 
holding  up  to  her  view  in  beautiful  style  the  poetry 
of  her  teachings,  her  ritual  and  her  sacraments.  But 
the  spirit  of  the  present  time  is  deeper.     It  is  more 


OUR   COLLEGES.  229 

serious,  more  truth-loving,  more  earnest  in  research, 
more  scientific  in  its  methods;  it  must  be  treated 
accordingly.  Darwin  and  Herbert  Spencer  are  not 
buffoons  or  charlatans  or  noisy  brawlers  like  Vol- 
taire and  the  Cyclopaedists.  If  Littr6  were  not 
an  earnest  disciple  of  Comte  do  you  suppose  for 
a  moment  that  in  the  last  hours  of  his  life  our  Lord 
would  have  admitted  him  to  the  grace  of  His 
sacrament  and  a  fellowship  with  His  followers? 
The  high  intellectual  attainments  of  these  men, 
their  respectable  social  standing,  their  earnestness, 
their  devotion  to  science,  all  deserve  the  considera- 
tion due  to  gentlemen  and  scholars.  They  cannot 
be  pooh-poohed,  nor  can  they  be  passed  over  in 
silence.  We  have  the  truth  with  us,  and  the  truth 
shall  prevail.  But  in  order  to  prevail  it  must  be 
properly  presented.  And  if  our  colleges  cannot 
present  it  properly  then  indeed  are  they  sad  fail- 
ures ;  and,  far  from  carrying  out  the  intentions  for 
which  nearly  all  the  colleges  and  universities  in 
Europe  were  originally  founded  and  endowed,  they 
become  things  of  stunted  growth  without  the 
robust  energy  of  secular  institutions,  and  therefore 
without  a  raison  d'Stre.  They  are  Catholic  or 
nothing. 

There  is  a  painful  lack  of  proper  text-books 
bearing  on  these  burning  issues  of  the  day.  On  the 
other  hand  there  is  badly  needed  a  life  of  our  Lord, 
written  with  the  view  of  refuting  the  dangerous 
works  of  Renan  and  Strauss.  Such  a  life  should  be 
written  with  the  loving  unction  of  a  Bonaventura, 
by  one  more  deeply  versed  in   Oriental  lore  than 


230  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Renan  himself,  and  capable  of  coping  with  the 
rationalizing  Biblical  criticism  of  Strauss.  It  should 
be  written  in  such  a  spirit  as  to  show  the  Godhead 
shining  forth  in  the  manhood  of  our  Lord,  and 
encircling  his  every  act  with  the  halo  of  His  divinity. 
Again  we  need  a  work  that  will  take  up  all  the  stray 
beams  of  truth  coursing  through  the  various  philo- 
sophical and  social  theories  and  systems  of  the  day, 
and  converge  them  all  into  a  single  focus.  Such  a 
work  requires  the  mental  grasp  of  an  Aquinas.  It 
would  gather  up  and  harmonize  all  the  conclusions 
and  facts  of  the  various  sciences  in  the  light  of 
clearly  defined  and  universally  admitted  principles, 
and  with  a  method  the  rigidity  of  which  no  scientist 
could  object  to  ;  it  would  in  the  light  of  those  prin- 
ciples show  wherein  lies  the  fallacy  of  this  author 
or  that  opposed  to  revelation  ;  it  would  reconstruct 
his  theory  and  place  it  in  harmony  with  the  truths 
of  faith.  We  have  a  few  attempts  of  this  kind 
especially  on  the  continent  of  Europe ;  but  the 
weak  point  with  the  majority  of  them  is,  that 
instead  of  going  down  into  the  arena  of  science,  and 
fighting  scientists  with  their  own  weapons,  they 
plant  themselves  on  the  serene  heights  of  religion, 
and  read  their  opponents  lectures  on  their  stupidity, 
ignorance  or  malice.  Surely,  no  man  is  likely  to  be 
convinced  of  the  erroneousness  of  his  opinion  by 
being  told  that  he  is  a  blockhead. 

No  good  can  come  of  this  mode  of  dealing  with 
the  issues  of  the  day.  All  along  the  line  experi- 
ment must  be  met  by  experiment,  fact  by  fact, 
argument  by  fact  and  argument  combined.     It  does 


OUR    COLLEGES.  231 

not  suffice  to  pick  a  flaw  in  this  incidental  statement 
or  that,  to  prove  the  falsity  of  this  side  or  that,  to 
show  the  fallacy  of  this  line  of  argument  or  that. 
Such  a  process  is  calculated  to  lead  the  attention  off 
the  main  question.  It  is  mere  skirmishing.  It  is 
caviare  to  the  general.  It  may  construct  a  brilliant 
magazine  article ;  but  it  cannot  make  a  student's 
handbook.  Mr.  Mallock  is  a  free  lance  who  follows 
this  desultory  mode.  He  takes  the  surface  expres- 
sions of  Positivist  teachers  in  letters  and  science  ;  he 
picks  flaws  in  them  ;  he  shows  the  absurdity  of  their 
conclusions ;  here  and  there  he  exposes  a  fallacy. 
In  a  charming  style  he  seeks  to  convince  his  readers 
that  they  may  judge  of  the  structure  of  Positiv- 
ist houses  from  the  specimen  of  rotten  wood  and 
broken  brick  that  he  hands  around.  His  book  is 
devoured  with  relish ;  men  are  so  well  pleased  to  find 
the  life  studies  of  eminent  scientists  and  philosophers 
brought  within  the  reach  of  their  comprehension 
with  little  or  no  effort  on  their  part.  Mr.  Mallock  is 
hailed  as  a  new  light.  But  no  sooner  has  the  first  rip- 
ple of  novelty  passed  away  than  it  is  found  that  Mr. 
Mallock  has  inconsistencies  in  his  reasoning,  that  he 
sometimes  begs  the  question,  and  that  the  correct- 
ness of  his  conclusions  is  due  more  to  the  shrewdness 
of  his  judgment  than  the  logic  of  his  deductions.  He 
deals  with  burning  questions,  not  because  they  press 
him  for  an  immediate  answer,  but  because  he  finds 
amusement  in  their  solution.  Whether  that  solu- 
tion be  a  yes  or  a  no,  is  a  matter  of  small  moment 
to  him  ;  it  will  interfere  neither  with  the  digestion  of 
his  dinner  nor  with  the  rounds  of  his  pleasures.     If 


232  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

Mr.  Mallock  desires  to  do  much  good,  he  must  first 
school  himself  into  earnestness. 

The  promiscuous  reading  of  such  a  book  as  Mr. 
Mallock's  or  of  stray  articles  in  the  reviews,  or  of  an 
occasional  lecture  on  these  living  issues,  will  not 
suffice.  Such  reading  is  without  method,  without 
thought,  without  aim,  and  it  is  at  the  very  least 
worthless,  frequently  dangerous,  for  advanced  stu- 
dents. It  has  value  only  when  carried  on  under  the 
guidance  of  an  older  and  more  experienced  head, 
who  has  coordinated,  arranged,  methodized  these 
promiscuous  works,  and  who,  by  his  explanations, 
leads  the  student  up  to  each  book,  showing  what 
may  be  expected  from  the  reading  of  such  a  book, 
wherein  it  makes  a  point  and  wherein  it  fails  to  re- 
fute. In  this  manner  only  would  a  student's  reading 
be  profitable. 

"  Whatever  students  read  in  the  province  of 
religion,"  says  Cardinal  Newman,  "  they  read,  and 
would  read  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  under 
the  superintendence  and  with  the  explanations  of 
those  who  are  older  and  more  experienced  than 
themselves." 

And  when  the  student  has  been  thus  followed 
up,  his  religious  instruction  gaining  in  robustness  and 
extent  as  his  intellectual  faculties  quicken,  he  learns 
to  revere  the  religion  that  can  suggest  to  him  the 
complete  solution  to  so  many  life  problems  ;  he  feels 
proud  of  it ;  he  proclaims  its  beauties  and  its  truths 
wherever  an  occasion  offers.  He  is  prepared  to 
fight  the  battle  of  his  faith  when  he  goes  out  into 
the  world.  His  education  has  been  in  deed  as 
well  as  in  name,  thoroughly  Catholic*     These  results 


OUR    COLLEGES.  233 

have  been  produced  from  time  to  time  by  our  Cath- 
olic institutions  of  learning.  These  results  will  be 
more  frequent  when  our  Catholic  institutions  of 
learning  shall  have  become  convinced  that  neither 
worldly  policy  nor  worldly  expediency  can  ever  sup- 
plant Catholic  principles. 


CHaRCH  AND  STATE 


m) 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.' 
I. 

/OCIETY,as  we  find  it,  and  as  far  back  as  history 
reveals  it  to  us,  lives  and  moves,  and  has  hith- 
erto lived  and  moved,  under  the  influence  of  the 
two-fold  principle  of  church  and  state.  It  is  not 
simply  the  state,  nor  is  it  simply  the  church,  but  it 
is  made  up  of  a  union  of  both  church  and  state.' 
Association  for  the  pursuit  of  temporal  happiness 
gives  rise  to  the  state;  association  in  a  community 
of  spiritual  goods  for  the  pursuit  of  eternal  happi- 
ness gives  rise  to  the  church.*  Just  as  a  man  is  not 
all  body  nor  all  soul,  but  the  intimate  union  of  body 
and  soul,  even  so  is  society  composed  of  the  inti- 
mate and  inseparable  union  of  a  temporal  organiza^ 
tion  and  a  spiritual  informing  principle.  For  what 
the  soul  is  to  the  body,  religion  is  to  the  state.  "  No 
state,"  says  Walter,  "  can  subsist  without  religion, 
which  fills  and  interpenetrates  every  sphere  of  life 
with  the  sense  of  the  obligation  of  duty.  Religion, 
which  respects  and  maintains  every  right  of  high 
and  low,  of  strong  and  weak,  is  the  conservative 
element  of  society.  ...  By  the  strength  of  charac- 
ter which  she  forms,  she  preserves  the  youth  of 
nations,  and,  when  they  fall  away  and  decay,  keeps 
them  from   the   withering   up  of   mind   and  heart. 

*  Catholic  Quarterly  Review. 

*  Brownson's  Works,  vol.  XIII.,  page  265. 
'  Cardinal  Mazella,  "  De  Ecclesia,"  p.  449. 

(237) 


238  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Religion  is  the  groundwork  of  family  life,  and  of 
the  purity  and  piety  nurtured  therein.  .  .  .  She 
brings  rich  and  poor  nearer  together,  urging  upon 
the  rich  sympathy  and  active  help  to  the  poor,  and 
instilling  into  the  poor  gratitude  and  consolation. 
Thus  she  softens  every  condition  of  life,  and  teaches 
man  that  he  can  be  elevated  and  ennobled  by  sub- 
mission. Religion,  then,  is  the  true  bond  which 
holds  the  state  together,  makes  it  strong,  and  saves 
it  from  degeneracy.'"  Now,  religion  without  a 
church  is  a  mere  abstraction.  "  The  church  is  the 
external  manifestation,  the  realization  and  the  ex- 
pression of  the  Christian  religion  in  an  independent 
organism."*  The  early  fathers  recognized  this  inti- 
mate union  of  church  and  state.  St.  Isidor  of 
Pelusium,  wrote  from  his  hermitage  in  Egypt :  "  The 
government  of  the  world  rests  on  kinghood  and  on 
priesthood ;  although  the  two  differ  widely —  for 
one  is  as  the  body,  the  other  as  the  soul  —  they  are 
nevertheless  destined  to  one  end,  the  well-being  of 
their  subjects."*  And  St.  John  Chrysostom  boldly 
carries  out  the  metaphor  of  soul  and  body  to  its 
limits:  "The  church,"  he  says,  "is  above  the  state, 
in  the  same  way  the  soul  is  above  the  body."* 

II. 

Going  back  to  pagan  days  we  find  that  philoso- 
phers never  dreamed  of  separating  religion  from  the 

1  "  Naturrecht  und  Politik,"  p.  237,  Bonn,  1871. 

*  Schema,  concerning  the  Church,  prepared  by  the  Fathers 
of  the  Vatican  Council,  apud  Hergenrother,  "  Church  and 
State,"  vol.  I.,  p.  52. 

'  "  Isid.  Pelus.,"  1.,  Hi.,  ep.  249. 

*  "  Horn."  15,  in  2  Cor.,  n.  5 ;  "  Migne"  xi.,  509. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE. 

state.  Plato  strives  to  impress  the  citizens  of  his 
ideal  republic  with  the  necessity  of  keeping  the 
Divine  law  if  they  would  preserve  the  state :  "  God, 
as  the  old  tradition  declares,  holding  in  His  hand  the 
beginning,  middle  and  end  of  all  that  is,  moves, 
according  to  his  nature,  in  a  straight  line  towards  the 
accomplishment  of  His  end.  Justice  always  follows 
Him,  and  is  a  punisher  of  those  who  fall  short  of  the 
Divine  law.  To  that  law  he  who  would  be  happy 
holds  fast,  and  follows  it  in  all  humility  and  order. 
.  .  .  Wherefore,  seeing  human  things  are  thus 
ordered,  .  .  .  every  man  ought  to  make  up  his 
mind  that  he  will  be  one  of  the  followers  of  God. 
Henceforth  all  citizens  must  be  profoundly  convinced 
that  the  gods  are  lords  and  rulers  of  all  that  exists, 
that  all  events  depend  upon  their  word  and  will,  and 
that  mankind  is  largely  indebted  to  them.'" 
Aristotle,  with  less  unction,  though  not  with  less 
conviction,  pronounces  worship  to  be  the  first  of  the 
six  leading  administrations  without  which  the 
state  cannot  subsist,  assigns  the  first  rank  to  the 
priesthood,  would  have  special  edifices  dedicated  to 
worship,  and  the  fourth  part  of  the  soil  and  land 
devoted  to  purposes  of  religion.' 

The  relations  of  church  and  state  vary  with 
times  and  occasions.  In  the  Gentile  world  the 
church  was  absorbed  by  the  state.  It  was  the  tool 
and  instrument  of  the  state.  The  number  and 
nature  of  the  household  gods  were  regulated  by  the 
state.    The  ceremonies  connected  with  the  worship 

>  "  De  Legg,"  iv.,  p.  388. 
»  "Politics,"  viii^8-i3. 


240  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

of  them  were  enjoined  by  the  state.  The  titular 
deities  of  the  state  were  carefully  served ;  they  were 
to  be  placated  in  times  of  calamity,  appealed  to  for 
aid  in  times  of  war ;  their  ire  was  to  be  appeased  in 
the  hour  of  defeat,  or  they  were  to  receive  public 
thanksgiving  in  the  hour  of  victory.  Every  the  least 
ceremony  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances 
was  legislated  for  by  the  state.  The  ruler  was  also 
the  Pontifex  Maximus.  He  united  in  himself  the 
plenitude  of  civil  and  priestly  power.  In  all  else 
was  the  state  equally  paramount.  The  family  was 
absorbed  in  the  state.  The  individual  lived  for  the 
state,  continued  to  breathe  by  favor  of  the  state,  and 
died  when  the  state  so  decreed.  The  state  was  the 
source  whence  all  things  drew  the  breath  of  life,  and 
the  seat  of  all  wisdom  and  authority. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  when  Chris- 
tianity first  dawned  upon  the  world's  horizon,  and 
its  rays  revealed  another  order  of  things.  It 
revealed  to  man  a  kingdom  other  than  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world,  to  which  he  had  a  flawless  title.  It 
taught  him  the  value  of  his  immortal  soul,  redeemed 
by  the  blood  of  Christ.  It  taught  him  how  to  pray 
and  how  to  overcome  his  passions.  How  much 
there  was  in  this  teaching  we  will  let  Dollinger 
explain : 

"When,"  he  says,  "the  attention  of  a  thinking 
heathen  was  directed  to  the  new  religion  spreading 
in  the  Roman  Empire,  the  first  thing  to  strike 
him  as  extraordinary  would  be,  that  a  religion  of 
prayer  was  superseding  the  religion  of  ceremonies 
and  invocations  of  gods ;  that  it  encouraged  all,  even 
the  humblest  and  most  uneducated  to  pray,  or,  in 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  241 

other  words,  to  meditate  and  exercise  the  mind  in 
self-scrutiny  and  contemplation  of  God.  .  .  .  This 
region  of  Christian  metaphysics  was  open  even  to 
the  mind  of  one  who  had  no  intellectual  culture 
before  conversion.  In  this  school  of  prayer  he 
learned  what  philosophy  had  declared  to  be  as  neces- 
sary as  it  was  difficult,  and  only  attainable  by  few — 
to  know  himself  as  God  knew  him.  And  from  that 
self-knowledge  prayer  carried  him  on  to  self-mastery. 
If  the  heathen  called  upon  his  gods  to  gratify  his 
passions ;  for  the  Christian,  tranquillity  of  soul,  mod- 
eration and  purifying  of  the  affections  were  at  once 
the  preparation  and  the  fruit  of  prayer.  And  thus, 
prayer  became  a  motive-power  of  moral  renewal  and 
inward  civilization,  to  which  nothing  else  could  be 
compared  for  efficacy."  * 

Justin  Martyr  called  attention  to  this  benign  in- 
fluence of  Christianity  in  his  day : 

"  We  Christians  contribute  most  to  the  tran- 
quility of  the  state,  since  we  teach  that  God  governs 
all ;  that  the  evil-doer,  the  avaricious,  the  assassin, 
as  well  as  the  virtuous  man,  are  known  to  Him ;  that 
each  one  who  passes  out  of  this  life  will  receive  an 
eternal  reward  or  an  eternal  punishment  according 
to  his  deserts.  Now,  if  all  believed  these  truths, 
assuredly  none  would  continue  a  moment  longer  in 
sin,  but  all  would  restrain  themselves  and  strive  to 
do  right,  in  order  finally  to  obtain  the  promised 
reward  and  to  escape  punishment.  For  those  who 
do  evil  know  that  they  can  escape  from  your  laws ; 
but  if  they  had  learnt,  and  were  fully  convinced, 
that  nothing,  not  an  action,  nor  even  a  thought  can 
remain  hidden  from  God,  they  would,  at  least  from 
fear  of  punishment,  strive  to  do  right."  * 


»  "The  First  Age  of  the  Church,"  vol. II., pp.  216,  317. 
'  ••  Apol.  I.,  pro,  Christ,"  xii. 
E.  M.— 16 


242  ESSArs  miscellaneous. 

In  this  manner  did  Christianity  become  a  new  civil- 
izing element.  Now,  society  is  perfect  in  proportion 
as  the  individuals  composing  society  are  perfect.  But 
the  perfection  of  the  individual  consists  in  submis- 
sion to  the  Divine  law. 

"  When  we  revere  and  honor  God,"  says  the 
Angelical  Doctor,  "our  mind  is  subject  to  Him,  and 
in  this  our  perfection  consists.  For  everything  is 
perfected  by  its  subjection  to  that  which  is  above  it, 
as  the  body  when  it  is  vivified  by  the  soul."  * 

III. 

Let  us  now  endeavor  to  make  clearto  ourselves  the 
meaning  both  of  church  and  of  state.  We  will  begin 
with  the  Church.  The  Church  is  an  organism.  It 
is  a  visible  embodiment  of  Divine  authority  addressing 
itself  to  the  souls  of  men  in  the  name  of  God.  It  is 
the  visible  custodian  of  the  natural  law  and  the 
revealed  or  positive  law.  It  has  not  created  or 
invented  or  discovered  these  laws.  The  Church 
could  not  change  them  if  it  would.  But  every 
church,  be  it  true  or  false,  speaks  to  man  in  the  name 
of  Divine  authority,  and  every  true  member  of  that 
church  recognizes  the  Divine  sanction.  A  church 
without  such  sanction  and  such  authority  is  meaning- 
less. A  church  on  a  hum^n  basis,  promulgating  a 
purely  human  doctrine,  looking  no  higher  than 
human  reason,  bears  upon  it  the  impress  of  its  own 
fallible,  short-lived  nature.  It  is  branded  with  the 
seal  of  imposition.  Not  the  combined  genius  of  a 
Comte,  a  Littr6  and  a  Frederick  Harrison  can  make 

^"Summa  Theologise,"  II.,  ii.,  qu.  xxxi.,  art.  7. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  248 

the  church  of  Positivism  other  than  a  religious  by- 
play. Gautama  and  Mohammed  established  their 
doctrines  and  built  up  their  churches  only  in  the  name 
of  God  and  as  his  ministers.  Had  they  presented 
themselves  upon  a  purely  human  basis  they  would 
have  passed  away  unheeded.  But  they  were  in 
earnest ;  they  believed  themselves  sent  of  God ; 
therefore,  they  were  accepted  for  what  they  repre- 
sented themselves  to  be,  and  accordingly  they 
succeeded.  The  Protestant  synod  of  Alain,  in  1620, 
excommunicated  by  virtue  of  the  Divine  author- 
ity which  it  conceived  to  be  vested  in  it : 

"We,  ministers  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  God  hath  furnished  with  spiritual  arms  .  .  . 
to  whom  the  eternal  Son  of  God  hath  given  the 
power  to  bind  and  to  loose  upon  earth,  declare  that 
what  we  shall  bind  upon  earth  shall  be  bound  in 
heaven." ' 

The  Puritan  fathers  would  not  and  dare  not  make 
laws  opposed  to  the  teachings  of  their  church. 
They  recognized  its  supremacy.  Believing  that  they 
alone  were  right  and  the  favored  ones  of  God's 
providence,  they  stood  out  against  the  whole  world 
and  persecuted  and  outlawed  all  who  presumed  to 
hold  religious  opinions  different  from  the  tenets 
which  they  believed  to  be  God's  own  teaching. 
They  stood  upon  an  elevated  but  a  very  narrow 
spiritual  plane  of  religious  opinion. 

Of  course,  not  everybody  speaking  as  the  mouth- 
piece of  the  Divinity  is  inspired.  Brigham  Young 
made  thousands  believe  that  he  had  a  Divinely-in- 

'  "  Actes  eccles.  et  civiles  de  tous  les  Synodes  nationaux  de 
r^lise  reform^e  de  France,"  ii.,  181,  182. 


244  ESSArs  miscellaneous. 

spired  mission  ;  few  believe  in  the  divinity  of  that  mis- 
sion to-day.  But  we  are  not  here  concerned  with 
determining  the  notes  by  which  true  inspiration  is  to 
be  distinguished  from  pure  illusion  and  imposition. 
We  are  simply  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  every 
church  has  meaning  only  by  reason  of  its  Divine 
origin  and  the  Divine  authority  in  whose  name  it 
teaches.  We  will  define  the  Christian  Church  as  it 
appears  to  us  in  its  oldest  and  most  authentic  form. 

Christ  organized  the  Church.  The  apostles  were 
the  first  bishops.  From  the  beginning  was  a  hier- 
archy established.  Peter  was  made  head  of  the 
Church  and  was  recognized  as  such  by  his  colleagues ; 
priests  and  deacons,  and  the  other  clerical  orders  were 
established.  The  Church  as  thus  organized  is 
endowed  with  a  threefold  power ;  namely,  the  power 
to  administer  the  sacraments,  the  power  of  jurisdic- 
tion and  the  power  of  teaching.  Of  the  seven 
sacraments  recognized  by  the  Church  as  the  seven 
channels  by  which  grace  is  conveyed  to  the  soul  and 
man  is  raised  up  into  the  sphere  of  the  supernatural, 
five  can  be  administered  by  none  other  than  a  bishop 
or  priest.  Therefore  it  has  been  with  the  most 
scrupulous  care  that  succession  in  the  orders  of 
bishops  and  priests  has  been  preserved  in  the  Church 
from  the  days  of  the  apostles.  And  so  the  faithful 
of  every  period  in  this  visible  organism,  the  Church, 
have  had  these  seven  sacraments  and  a  duly  ordained 
and  properly  authorized  priesthood  to  administer 
them. 

The  Church  has  a  power  of  jurisdiction,  that  is 
to  say,  she  has  the  right  to  exercise  authority  over 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  245 

Christians  in  those  things  which  belong  to  religion. 
This  power  flows  directly  from  the  authority  of  the 
Divine  Founder,  It  alone  renders  licet  the  sacra- 
mental  power  of  the  clergy.  Indeed  no  pastoral  act 
may  be  performed  within  the  Church  without  par- 
ticipation in  ecclesiastical  authority.  That  author- 
ity may  be  delegated  or  it  may  belong  to  the  office 
for  which  one  has  been  ordained.  But  the  main 
point  to  hold  in  view  is  this  :  That  no  jot  or  tittle 
of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  is  derived  from  the  laity 
within  the  Church  or  from  the  state  or  from  any 
source  other  than  the  Divine  authority  on  which 
the  Church  is  founded.  Therefore,  wherever  there  is 
lay  or  state  interference  in  the  matter  of  the  sacra- 
ments, or  of  doctrine  or  of  religious  jurisdiction, 
there  is  an  element  foreign  to  the  Divine  institution 
established  by  Christ.  A  church,  for  instance,  that 
would  be  organized  and  legislated  for  by  Congress 
could  scarcely  command  the  respect  and  submission 
of  men.  It  might,  indeed,  be  a  very  wise  human 
institution,  but  no  one  would  dare  call  its  Congres- 
sional enactments  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Equally  human  and  equally  fallible  would  be  a 
church  created  by  act  of  parliament. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  is,  then,  the 
jurisdiction  of  a  visible  independent  organism,  and 
is  judicial,  legislative,  and  executive.  She  has  the 
right  to  make  laws  within  her  own  spiritual  sphere 
of  action,  and  to  execute  those  laws.  She  has  the 
right  to  impose  upon  her  members  the  obligation  of 
accepting  without  reserve  her  declarations  concern- 
ing faith  and  morals  under  ecclesiastical  penalties. 


246  ESSArs  miscellaneous. 

As  the  custodian  of  the  natural  law  and  of  the 
revealed  law,  she  is  entitled  to  interpret  and  admin- 
ister them  in  religious  matters.  She  has,  moreover, 
the  power  to  make  and  to  inforce  laws  of  her  own. 
These  last,  be  it  remembered,  contain  within  them- 
selves so  much  of  a  purely  human  element  that 
they  may  be  changed,  or  dispensed  with,  or  abro- 
gated. Thus  it  is  that  in  certain  countries  certain 
holidays  of  obligation  have  been  abrogated.  Thus 
it  is  that  the  Church  daily  grants  dispensation 
regarding  marriage  within  certain  degrees  of  kin- 
dred. In  like  manner  does  she  dispense  persons 
from  vows  or  commute  their  vows  under  certain 
circumstances  and  with  sufificient  reason.  All  this 
she  could  not  do  with  regard  to  the  Divine  law, 
whether  it  be  natural  or  positive.  She  could  not, 
for  instance,  permit  or  tolerate  an  act  of  injustice  as 
between  man  and  man,  nor  could  she  allow  her  high- 
est dignitaries  any  more  than  her  humblest  laymen, 
to  injure  their  neighbor's  reputation  by  any  act, 
overt  or  covert,  direct  or  indirect ;  nor  in  such  sup- 
position could  she  dispense  them  from  making  such 
reparation  as  is  within  their  power.  She  cannot 
change  the  eternal  principle  of  right  and  wrong. 
All  these  are  primary  truths. 

IV. 

Next,  consider  the  teaching  power  of  the  Church. 
Her  Divine  Founder  gave  her  the  mission  to  go 
forth  and  teach  all  nations  in  His  name.  He  that 
heareth  you  heareth  me.  This  mission  extends  to 
all  subjects  bearing  upon  religion.     It  includes  both 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  247 

the  natural  and  the  positive  law  of  God,  as  well  as 
the  revealed  truths  and  mysteries  of  faith.  The 
teaching  power  resides  in  its  plenitude  in  the  Roman 
pontiff  as  it  did  in  his  predecessor  the  Apostle  Peter. 
He  is  unerring  in  defining  matters  pertaining  to 
faith  and  morals.  His  infallibility  does  not  extend 
beyond  this  domain.  In  all  matters  of  political 
action  or  of  private  opinion,  the  pope  is  as  liable  to 
err  as  any  layman  equally  instructed.  An  ecumen- 
ical council  is  also  unerring  when  defining  matters  of 
faith  and  morals  ;  but  it  is  only  the  papal  approval 
that  renders  the  council  ecumenical  and  stamps  its 
decrees  with  the  seal  of  authority.  The  teaching 
power  is  communicated  to  bishops  and  priests,  but 
not  in  its  plenitude.  They  may  err  in  their  teach- 
ings, even  as  they  may  be  culpable  in  their  conduct. 
Their  words  have  weight  only  in  proportion  to  the 
learning  and  the  soundness  of  judgment  they  bring 
to  bear  upon  their  subject-matter. 

And  here  we  would  dwell  upon  a  grave  mis- 
conception entertained  of  our  mental  attitude  as 
Catholics  by  those  not  of  the  body.  We  give  the 
misconception  as  stated  by  an  American  writer  who 
would  not  voluntarily  do  us  an  injustice.  Speaking 
of  the  Church  in  America  this  writer  says : 

"  There  is  almost  as  much  dissent,  agnosticism, 
free  thought — call  it  what  you  will  —  among  edu- 
cated Catholics  as  among  other  people  in  America. 
This  is  at  once  the  source  of  peculiar  strength  and  of 
unique  weakness  to  the  Catholic  Church." ' 


Tke  Westminster  Review,  June,  1888. 


248  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

We  do  not  see  how  this  can  be  a  source  of  any- 
thing  real,  since  it  is  a  condition  of  things  that  does  not 
exist  outside  of  the  writer's  mind.  We  Catholics — 
the  ignorant  layman  no  less  than  the  learned  theolo- 
gian— all  profess  the  same  creed  and  hold  by  the  same 
truths  of  faith,  upon  the  same  ground  of  belief,  namely, 
the  veracity  of  God  revealing  them,  known  because 
that  the  Holy  Roman  Catholic  Church  believes  and 
teaches  them.  This  and  nothing  more.  The  learned 
theologian  may  attempt  to  account  for  the  faith 
that  is  in  him ;  he  may  seek  to  reconcile  it  with  his 
reason ;  he  may  answer  objections  raised  against 
certain  articles  of  his  faith ;  but  he  cannot  pare  away 
or  minimize  that  faith  ;  he  cannot  drop  a  single  jot 
or  tittle  of  that  faith  without  ceasing  to  be  a  Catho- 
lic. He  accepts  it  all  —  neither  more  nor  less  —  with 
the  same  sincerity  with  which  his  unlettered  brother 
accepts  it.  The  mental  attitude  of  Catholics  towards 
their  faith  is  simply  one  of  absolute  certitude.  In 
matters  of  opinion,  or  of  credence,  or  of  speculation, 
or  of  mere  probability,  we  exercise  our  own  judg- 
ments like  the  rest  of  men  on  those  same  matters, 
and  come  to  our  own  conclusions  according  to  per- 
sonal bias  and  the  tone  of  our  intellectual  training. 
Even  in  matters  of  faith  our  explanations  of  the 
various  articles  of  our  creed  -may  vary  and  some 
may  even  be  erroneous.  There  are  men,  for  in- 
stance, who  find  the  presence  of  design  in  the 
material  world  a  strong  argument  for  the  existence 
of  God ;  others  refuse  to  be  convinced  by  that  argu- 
ment, but  find  their  strongest  demonstration  in  a 
recognition  of  the  moral  sense.     But  it  is  clearly  an 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  249 

abuse  of  terms  to  call  our  honest  divergence  of 
opinion  concerning  all  matters  upon  which  we  are 
free  to  diverge,  free  thinking  or  agnosticism  in  the 
accepted  meaning  of  these  words. 

You  cannot  conceive  a  Catholic  agnostic.  As 
well  might  you  think  a  positive  negation.  One  term 
is  as  meaningless  as  the  other.  You  might  conceive  a 
minister  of  the  Church,  whether  priest  or  bishop,  con- 
tinuing to  exercise  the  functions  of  his  ministry  long 
after  he  has  ceased  to  believe  in  their  efficacy,  but 
sooner  or  later  he  shirks  the  discipline  of  his  position, 
and  the  world  takes  at  his  worth  the  man  who  sails 
under  false  colors  or  who  dares  not  assume  the  re- 
sponsibility of  his  convictions.  Now,  it  would  be  a  vile 
slander  upon  the  Catholic  priesthood  in  America  — 
and  the  writer  from  whom  we  have  quoted  would  be 
the  last  to  put  it  upon  them  intentionally  —  to  say 
that  any  number  of  them  were  praying  to  a  God  in 
whose  existence  they  did  not  believe,  or  adminis- 
tering sacraments  in  whose  efficacy  they  had  no  faith. 

Our  Catholic  writers  are  of  all  shades  of  opinion 
upon  the  issues  of  the  day.  In  this  they  are  subject 
to  no  censure.  Take,  for  instance,  the  burning  ques- 
tions of  modern  science  and  modem  thought.  Some 
there  are  who  think  that  as  children  of  the  age  it  is 
their  duty  to  face  the  problems  of  the  age  and  effect 
their  solution  as  best  they  may.  Others,  again,  are 
alarmed  at  the  hostile  attitude  of  certain  leaders  of 
modern  thought  towards  the  Church,  and,  identify- 
ing the  person  with  the  cause,  condemn  the  whole 
without  a  fair  hearing.  They  seek  refuge  in  extreme 
rigidity  of  doctrine.     In  their  opinion  the  Decalogue 


250  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

is  incomplete,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  too  mild, 
and  Rome  too  lenient.  The  non-Catholic  world  is 
only  too  prone  to  identify  this  class  of  writers  with 
the  Church.  Their  extreme  views  bring  odium  upon 
all  religion.  They  seem  incapable  of  learning  from 
the  blunders  of  the  past.  They  speak  and  write  as 
though  the  Inquisition  had  never  made  Galileo  say 
that  the  earth  did  not  move  round  the  sun,  or  the 
Sorbonne  had  not  dictated  to  Buflon  what  he  should 
write  concerning  this  world's  formation.  Every 
educated  Catholic  knows  that  neither  the  Inquisition 
nor  the  Sorbonne  is  the  Church,  and  though  both 
were  formidable  bodies,  they  had  no  claim  to  infalli- 
bility. Why  should  these  over-hasty  writers  attempt 
to  force  a  repetition  of  such  blunders?  They  are 
misleading,  and  are  not  to  be  considered  in  any 
respect  representative.  You  will  find  other  Catholic 
writers  holding  views  as  broad  as  theirs  are  narrow. 
The  children  of  the  Church  have  great  liberty  of 
action  and  opinion.  It  is  the  liberty  of  children  in 
a  well-regulated  household.  They  know  the  limit 
beyond  which  they  must  not  pass. 

The  doctrinal  life  of  the  Church  is  that  she  at  all 
times  and  under  all  circumstances  preserve  unity 
of  doctrine  in  the  midst  of  multiplicity  of  opinion. 
The  doctrine  she  teaches  to-day  she  has  always,  and 
everywhere,  and  to  all  men,  taught  from  the  begin- 
ning. This  is  the  secret  of  her  strength  and  her 
endurance  as  a  teaching  body.  Permit  me  to  quote 
for  you  an  impartial  witness  to  the  fact.  Speaking 
of  the  characteristics  of  absolute  infallibility  Mr. 
Mallock  says : 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  251 

"Any  supernatural  religion  that  renounces  its 
claim  to  this,  it  is  clear  can  profess  to  be  a  semi-revela- 
tion only.  It  is  a  hybrid  thing,  partly  natural  and 
partly  supernatural,  and  it  thus  practically  has  all  the 
qualities  of  a  religion  that  is  wholly  natural.  In  so 
far  as  it  professes  to  be  revealed,  it  of  course  professes 
to  be  infallible  ;  but  if  the  revealed  part  be  in 
the  first  place  hard  to  distinguish,  and  in  the  second 
place  hard  to  understand  —  if  it  may  mean  many 
things,  and  many  of  these  contradictory  —  it  might 
just  as  well  have  never  been  made  at  all.  To  make 
it  in  any  sense  an  infallible  revelation,  or,  in  other 
words,  a  revelation  at  all  to  us,  we  need  a  power  to 
interpret  the  testament  that  shall  have  equal 
authority  with  that  testament  itself.  Simple  as  this 
truth  seems,  mankind  has  been  a  long  time  learning 
it.  Indeed,  it  is  only  in  the  present  day  that  its 
practical  meaning  has  come  generally  to  be  recog- 
nized. But  now,  at  this  moment,  upon  all  sides  of 
us,  history  is  teaching  it  to  us  by  an  example  so 
clearly  that  we  can  no  longer  mistake  it.  That 
example  is  Protestant  Christianity,  and  the  condi- 
tion to  which,  after  three  centuries,  it  is  now  visibly 
bringing  itself.  It  is  at  last  beginning  to  exhibit  to 
us  the  true  results  of  the  denial  of  infallibility  to  a 
religion  that  professes  to  be  supernatural.  It  is  fast 
evaporating  into  a  mere  natural  theism,  and  is  thus 
showing  us  what,  as  a  governing  power,  natural 
theism  is.  Let  us  look  at  England,  Europe  and 
America,  and  consider  the  condition  of  the  entire 
Protestant  world.  Religion,  it  is  true,  we  shall  find 
in  it,  but  it  is  religion  from  which  not  only  the  super- 
natural element  is  disappearing,  but  in  which  the 
natural  element  is  fast  becoming  nebulous.  It  is, 
indeed,  growing,  as  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  says  it  is, 
into  a  religion  of  dreams.  All  its  doctrines  are 
growing  vague  as  dreams,  and  like  dreams  their  out- 
lines  are   forever  changing.     There   is  hardly  any 


252  ESSArs  miscellaneous. 

conceivable  aberration  of  moral  license  that  has  not 
in  some  quarter  or  other  embodied  itself  into  a  rule 
of  life  and  claimed  to  be  the  proper  outcome  of 
Protestant  Christianity." ' 

So  far  Mr.  Mallock.  His  remarks  make  it  clear  to 
us  that  a  church  regarding  itself  as  Divine  in  its 
origin  and  inspiration  and  at  the  same  time  not  un- 
erring  as  a  guide,  would  be  a  self-contradiction. 

But  there  are  limitations  to  the  teaching  mission 
of  the  Church.  The  fulfillment  of  Christ's  promise 
to  be  with  His  Church  and  to  guide  and  direct  her 
in  her  mission,  extends  only  to  those  things  for  which 
she  has  been  commissioned.  She  has  no  mission 
to  teach  purely  secular  science.  She  may  utilize 
the  science  she  finds  her  children  possessed  of,  and 
speak  to  them  in  the  language  of  that  science,  but 
she  never  descends  to  take  issue  upon  every  new 
scientific  theory.  Should  science  trespass  upon  her 
domain  and  assert  anything  opposed  to  her  fixed  and 
immutable  principles,  she  cautions  her  children 
against  such  teachings.  Individual  members  of  the 
Church  may  dispute  over  certain  issues,  but  the 
Church  bides  her  own  time  with  the  patient  tranquil- 
lity of  one  who  has  outlived  many  disputes  and  seen 
many  brilliant  and  aggressive  theories  dashed  to  spray 
at  her  feet.  And  when  science  shall  have  winnowed 
the  chaff  from  the  grain  and  human  reason  shall 
have  become  possessed  of  an  additional  fact  or  an 
additional  law  of  nature,  the  Church  shall  be  found 
precisely    where   she    stood   before   the   discovery. 


»  "  Is  Life  Worth  Living  ?"  pp.  274,  275. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  258 

She  is  not  the  one  who  has  been  obliged  to  shift  her 
lines.  It  is  in  this  attitude  of  the  Church  that  we 
have  the  clue  to  her  whole  bearing  towards  science 
in  the  course  of  its  development  and  its  variations. 
Here  it  may  be  asked :  Since  the  teaching  mis- 
sion of  the  Church  is  thus  circumscribed,  why  does 
she  make  such  persistent  efforts  to  control  education 
in  all  its  roots  and  branches  ?  To  this  I  would  say : 
The  Church  cannot  recognize  any  system  of  train- 
ing for  the  child  from  which  religion  is  excluded. 
With  her  religion  is  an  essential  factor  in  education. 
Among  Christian  peoples  the  child  has  always  com- 
bined Christian  doctrine  and  Christian  practices  with 
purely  secular  teaching  in  the  schoolroom.  The 
child  of  Christian  parents  is  entitled  to  this  Christian 
education.  To  impose  upon  him  any  system  of 
education  calculated  to  weaken  his  hold  upon  the 
Christian  heritage  into  which  he  was  born,  were  an 
act  of  gross  injustice.  Our  Catholic  clergy,  as  the 
pastors  of  souls,  answerable  to  God  for  those  confided 
to  their  care,  are  in  duty  bound  to  see  that  the 
children  of  their  parish  are  instructed  in  the  doctrines 
and  practices  of  that  Church  which  they  believe  to  be 
the  pillar  and  the  ground  of  Truth.  This  can  be 
properly  and  efficiently  done  only  by  means  of  a 
system  of  education  especially  provided  for  the 
purpose.  Given  a  clergy  believing  in  the  Divine  origin 
of  their  religion,  believing  that  religion  to  be  so  great 
a  boon  that  they  would  gladly  die  for  it,  believing 
that  unless  the  child  is  at  an  early  age  taught  reli- 
gious doctrine  and  religious  practices  he  runs  the  risk 
of  growing  up  wholly  indifferent  to   the   priceless 


254  ESSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

value  of  his  Christian  heritage,  and  you  cannot 
conceive  that  clergy  holding  any  other  attitude 
towards  a  purely  secular  education  for  their  Catholic 
children  than  one  of  hostility.  It  were  a  betrayal 
of  their  trust,  an  abandonment  of  the  birthright  of 
those  confided  to  them,  to  acquiesce  in  a  school 
system  from  which  Catholic  doctrine,  Catholic 
prayer  and  Catholic  practices  of  devotion  had  been 
banished.  Therefore  it  is  that  the  Church  binds  the 
consciences  of  pastors  and  of  people,  to  keep  their 
Catholic  children  aloof  from  such  schools,  and  to 
establish  parochial  schools  whenever  and  wherever  it 
is  possible. 

Her  mission  to  teach  gives  the  Church  the  right 
to  safeguard  the  child  against  any  influence  that 
would  be  injurious  to  faith  and  morals.  Hers  is  the 
right  to  see  that  the  books  made  use  of,  the  men  and 
women  imparting  instruction,  and  the  character  of 
the  instruction  given,  be  such  as  aid  in  the  work 
of  spiritualizing  and  elevating  the  child,  and  making 
his  soul  worthy  of  its  future  heavenly  abode.  Hers 
is  the  duty  to  forbid  to  her  children  the  use  of  books 
in  which  there  is  doctrine  contrary  to  that  which  she 
teaches,  in  which  is  to  be  found  any  system  or 
principle  of  mental  philosophy  that  she  has  con- 
demned,  or  in  which  history  ,is  compiled  with  a 
view  to  misrepresenting  Catholicity  or  undermining 
Catholic  influences.  Children,  or  even  young  men 
and  young  women,  are  not  in  a  position  to  take  in 
both  sides  of  religious,  philosophical  or  historical 
questions ;  they  lack  maturity  of  judgment  and  the 
information  essential  to  determine  truth  from  error. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  256 

It  were  folly  to  leave  their  weak,  half-trained,  ill- 
informed  minds  to  grapple  alone  with  issues  that 
exercise  the  most  ripened  scholars  to  comparatively 
little  purpose.  And  so  it  happens  that  while  the 
Church  has  no  mission  as  regards  the  imparting  of 
purely  secular  education,  it  belongs  to  her  function 
to  exercise  due  vigilance  over  every  branch  of  science 
and  letters  that  would  be  likely,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  affect  religious  belief. 


We  now  come  to  the  state.  The  state  is  also  a 
social  organism.  It  grows  out  of  the  very  nature 
of  society.  The  family,  and  not  the  individual,  is 
the  unit  of  the  state. 

"  The  human  family,"  says  Cardinal  Manning, 
"  contains  the  first  principles  and  laws  of  authority, 
obedience  and  order.  These  three  conditions  of 
society  are  of  Divine  origin  ;  and  they  are  the  con- 
structive laws  of  all  civil  or  political  society."  ' 

Therefore,  the  state  is  of  Divine  origin.  It 
is  organized  for  the  protection  of  society  and 
the  commonweal.  It  has  rights  and  duties  and 
responsibilities.  It  rights  are  embodied  in  the 
natural  law,  and  come  not  from  society,  nor  from 
its  own  intrinsic  nature,  but  from  God  who  is  the 
source  and  sanction  of  all  authority,  obedience  and 
order.  The  state  is  organized  directly  for  the  hap- 
piness and  well-being  of  man  in  this  life.  It 
protects  his  person  and  property  ;  it  guarantees  him 
liberty  of  action  in  the  fulfillment  of  his  duties;  it 

*  "The  Vatican  Decrees  in  Their  Bearing  on  Civil  Alle- 
giance," p.  46.     American  edition. 


256  BSSArs  miscellaneous. 

frames  such  laws  as  promote  his  welfare  and  the 
welfare  of  the  nation.  The  form  of  government 
established  in  the  state  is  determined  by  the  people. 
There  is  no  Divine  ordinance  as  to  what  that  form 
may  be. 

Nor  has  the  Church  a  preference.  If  our  the- 
ologians speak  of  the  king  and  the  kingly  form  of 
government,  it  is  because  that  is  the  form  with 
which  when  writing  they  were  most  familiar.  But 
the  present  Pope,  Leo  XIII.,  has  clearly  defined  the 
position  of  the  Church  as  regards  form  of  govern- 
ment: 

"  While  being  the  guardian  of  her  rights,"  he 
says,  "and  most  careful  against  encroachment,  the 
Church  has  no  care  what  form  of  government  exists 
in  a  state,  or  by  what  custom  the  civil  order  of  ChriS' 
tian  nations  is  directed ;  of  the  various  kinds  of  gov- 
ernment there  is  none  of  which  she  disapproves,  so 
long  as  religion  and  moral  discipline  live  untouched^  * 

But  while  the  form  is  determined  by  external 
circumstances,  the  authority  and  the  sanction  come 
from  God.  No  man,  for  instance,  has  the  power  of 
life  and  death  over  another ;  and  yet  in  the  interests 
of  society,  the  state  condemns  the  criminal  to  be 
hanged.  Whence  derives  it  this  dread  power  ?  Not 
from  society,  for  the  command  Thou  shalt  not  kill  is 
as  applicable  to  a  body  of  individuals  as  to  a  single 
person.  Not  in  the  state  itself,  for  the  state  is  only 
the  society  composing  it,  and  society  cannot  give 
what  it  does  not  possess.  The  power  and  the  sanc- 
tion of  that  power  come  to  the  state  from  God  alone. 

^  "  Encyclical,"  January  lo,  1890. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  257 

And  since  the  state  is  of  God  as  well  as  the  Church, 
complete  harmony  should  exist  in  all  their  relations. 
But  the  history  of  modem  civilization  is  the  history 
of  unintermitting  struggle  between  Church  and  state. 
Whence  arises  this  struggle  ?  The  sphere  of  action 
of  each  is  distinct. 

"  Both  Church  and  state  have  each  an  individual 
domain  ;  wherefore  in  fulfilling  their  separate  duties 
neither  is  subject  to  the  other  within  the  limits  fixed 
by  their  boundary  lines." ' 

So  speaks  the  reigning  pontiff.  To  understand 
the  struggle  we  must  go  back  to  the  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity. Christianity  found  itself  face  to  face  with 
pagan  Rome.  Its  Divine  founder  counseled  his 
disciples  to  render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  were 
Caesar's  and  to  God  the  things  that  were  God's. 
And  St.  Paul  threw  the  whole  force  of  his  energetic 
soul  into  insistance  on  obedience  to  the  state. 

"  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to  higher  powers ;  for 
there  is  no  power  but  from  God  ;  and  those  that  are 
are  ordained  of  God,  Therefore  he  that  resisteth  the 
power  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God  and  they  that 
resist  purchase  to  themselves  damnation.  .  .  .  Ren- 
der therefore  to  all  men  their  dues.  Tribute  to 
whom  tribute  is  due  ;  custom  to  whom  custom ;  fear 
to  whom  fear  ;  honor  to  whom  honor."  * 

But  there  were  clearly  defined  limitations  beyond 
which  the  Christian  could  not  submit.  He  could  not 
worship  the  false  gods  of  the  pagan  world.  He  could 
not  share  in  the  national  rights  and  ceremonies  that 


»  Ibid. 

'  Romans  xili.,  l-*]. 
E.  M.— 17 


258  BSSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

cloaked  the  most  disgusting  orgies  and  crimes.  The 
Christian  had  learned  the  holy  nature  of  the  living 
God,  the  heinousness  of  sin  and  the  necessity  of 
keeping  his  soul  spotless  before  the  all-penetrating 
Presence.  He  had  learned  that  many  pagan  prac- 
tices, sanctioned  by  religion,  were  sinful,  and  he 
preferred  death  to  sin.  This  gave  rise  to  a  bitter 
struggle  between  the  state  and  the  early  Christian 
Church.  There  was  no  compromise.  Under  all 
circumstances  God  is  to  be  obeyed  rather  than  men. 
And  so  the  Roman  Empire  reeked  with  the  blood  of 
martyrs.  It  was  a  death  struggle.  On  the  one  side 
was  the  all-powerful,  all-absorbing  empire  of  the 
world,  and  on  the  other  were  a  few  scattered  Chris- 
tians, weak  in  number,  weak  in  rank  and  position, 
weak  in  every  respect  but  in  the  moral  courage  to 
live  up  to  their  convictions.  But  moral  courage, 
animated  by  a  burning  idea,  is  an  irresistible  force. 
The  vast  material  resources  of  the  Roman  Empire 
could  not  withstand  its  progress.  Rome  under 
Constantine  proclaimed  herself  Christian.  Her  very 
law  became  regenerated. 

St.  Augustine  had  said — and  his  words  bore  with 
them  great  weight  throughout  the  Middle  Ages — that 
true  justice  has  no  existence  save  in  that  republic 
whose  founder  and  ruler  is  Christ.'  In  the  light  of 
Christian  truth  and  in  the  practice  of  Christian  jus- 
tice, always  tempered  by  Christian  mercy,  the  absolute 
law  of  pagan  Rome  came  to  be  regarded  as  supreme 
injustice.  Public  opinion  was  gradually  educated  up 
to  a  higher  conception  of   right  and  equity.      Men 

1  "De  Civ.  Dei.,"  ii.,  4. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  259 

became  impressed  with  the  sanctity  of  human  life. 
From  the  beginning  the  Church  had  set  her  face 
against  abortion  and  infanticide.  In  the  course  of 
time  the  state  imbibed  the  same  horror  for  these 
crimes  and  enacted  laws  against  them.  Gladiatorial 
games,  in  which  lives  were  cast  away  to  pander  to  a 
depraved  taste,  were  abolished.  A  sense  of  univer- 
sal brotherhood  grew  apace.  The  dignity  of  labor 
became  recognized.  Charity  extended  a  helping 
hand  in  many  directions  to  the  relief  of  want  and 
the  assuaging  of  misery  and  suffering.  Immediately 
after  the  days  of  Constantine  it  is  no  longer  the 
emperor  who  is  remembered  in  men's  last  will  and 
testament ;  it  is  the  Church  as  the  dispenser  of 
charities.  Here  is  already  a  great  revolution  of 
ideas.  But  the  greatest  of  all  revolutions  in  Roman 
jurisprudence  is  the  recognition  of  the  woman's 
rights  in  the  marriage  law  as  standing  upon  an  equal 
footing  with  those  of  a  man.  This  change  renders 
the  Justinian  Code  an  immortal  landmark  in  the 
history  of  human  progress.  The  world  has  ceased  to 
be  Roman  ;  the  Galilean  has  conquered. 

In  like  manner  did  the  Church  educate  the  bar- 
barian up  to  the  same  sense  of  the  sanctity  of  human 
life,  the  same  respect  for  others'  rights  and  others' 
goods  and  the  same  idea  of  a  universal  brotherhood. 
In  legislating  for  sin  she  was  legislating  for  crime.  The 
early  Christian  kings  frequently  made  the  Peniten- 
tials  the  basis  of  their  criminal  code.  Her  bishops 
and  clergy  in  their  councils  enacted  laws  as  beneficial 
to  the  state  as  they  were  helpful  to  souls.  And  so 
almost     imperceptibly    did    modern    jurisprudence 


260  ESSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

receive  a  Christian  tone  till  in  its  whole  substance  and 
meaning  it  has  become  solely  and  peculiarly 
Christian.'  Well  might  Lecky  write  of  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Church : 

"She  exercised  for  many  centuries  an  almost 
absolute  empire  over  the  thoughts  and  actions  of 
mankind  and  created  a  civilization  which  was  per- 
meated in  every  part  with  ecclesiastical  influence."  " 

Let  us  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  nature  of  that 
influence.  It  was  an  influence  achieved  only  after 
a  long  and  patient  struggle.  The  Church  begins  by 
teaching  the  barbarian  his  letters.  By  means  of 
literature  and  ritual  and  ceremonial  and  plain  chant 
she  speaks  to  his  imagination  and  he  understands  and 
appreciates  her  language  and  his  nature  grows  refined 
beneath  the  refining  influence.  By  means  of  prayer 
and  grace  of  the  sacraments  she  moulds  his  charac- 
ter and  forms  his  soul  to  virtue.  Her  mission  was 
one  of  civilization.  It  was  the  effort  of  mind  to  pre- 
dominate over  matter,  the  taming  of  lawless  natures, 
the  lifting  up  into  a  higher  plane  of  thought,  exer- 
tion and  aspiration,  a  humanity  that  had  otherwise 
been  conten,t  to  live  within  the  most  circumscribed 
sphere  of  earthly  existence.  An  Ambrose  stays  the 
footsteps  of  Theodosius  at  the  Church  door  because 
his  hands  were  stained  with  wanton  bloodshed 
This  sublime  act  embodies  the  spirit  and  the  mission 
of  the  Church  towards  the  state. 

"  The  resistance,"  says  Bryce,  "  and  final  triumph 

of  Athanasius  proved  that  the  new  society  could  put 

forth  a  power  of  opinion  such  as  had  never  been 

'  See  Bluntschli.     "  Allgemeines  Statsrecht,"  p.  6. 
*  •'  History  of  European  Morals,"  ii.,  p.  15. 


CHURCH  AND   STATE.  261 

known  before ;  the  abasement  of  Theodosius  the  em- 
peror before  Ambrose  the  bishop  admitted  the  su- 
premacy of  spiritual  authority."  ' 

And  so  we  find  the  Church  at  all  times  and  under 
all  circumstances,  without  respect  of  persons,  regu- 
lating conduct  and  preserving  purity  of  faith  and 
morals. 

VI. 

In  the  midst  of  this  civilizing  process  there  loom  up 
two  powers,  each  the  embodiment  of  a  distinct  idea, 
each  claiming  supremacy.  In  the  struggle  between 
these  two  powers  we  have  the  clue  to  all  mediaeval 
and  modern  history.  One  is  the  Papacy ;  the  other 
is  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  From  the  days  of  Con- 
stantine,  according  as  the  people  became  Christian, 
bishops  exercised  more  and  more  influence  in  tem- 
poral affairs.  They'  performed  the  functions  of 
magistrates  and  judges,  and  so  even-handed  were 
they  in  administering  the  law  the  very  pagans 
brought  suit  before  them  in  preference  to  the  civil 
courts.  They  were  the  counselors  and  ministers  of 
rulers.  It  was  the  bishops  of  France  who  made  of 
France  a  nation.  Her  kings  in  consequence  recog- 
nized their  jurisdiction.  Charles  the  Bald  (a.  d. 
859)  said  that  "by  them  he  had  been  crowned, 
and  to  their  paternal  corrections  and  chastisements 
he  was  willing  to  submit."  *  What  bishops  were  in 
their  respective  dioceses,  the  pope  came  to  be 
regarded  by  all  Christendom.  How  else  keep  inter- 
national relations  upon  the  footing  of  equity?     A 

*  "  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  3rd  ed.,  p.  lao. 
»  "  Hefele,"  iv.,  p.  197. 


262  £SSjirS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

weaker  nation  was  helpless  to  right  the  wrongs 
inflicted  by  one  more  powerful.  Countries  far  apart 
would  find  difficulty  in  coming  to  a  mutual  under- 
standing. But  under  the  authority  and  through  the 
mediation  of  the  Supreme  Head  of  Christendom, 
whom  all  looked  upon  as  the  Father  of  the  whole 
Christian  family,  the  representative  of  justice  and 
the  avenger  of  evil  doing,  wrongs  might  be  righted 
and  reconciliations  effected  under  difficulties  which 
might  otherwise  lead  to  disastrous  results.  And  so 
the  pope  became,  by  virtue  of  public  law  and  by 
the  consent  of  the  Christian  people,  and  not  by  Divine 
right,  the  arbiter  between  sovereigns  and  the  peace- 
maker among  nations.  His  power  as  then  recog- 
nized scarcely  knew  a  limit.  He  could  for  sufficient 
reason  depose  kings,  absolve  people  from  allegiance 
to  their  rulers,  place  whole  nations  under  interdict, 
quell  wars,  decide  upon  the  justice  of  a  cause,  and 
more  than  once  have  we  seen  rulers  place  their  king- 
doms in  fiefdom  at  his  feet,  as  their  only  protection 
against  a  too-powerful  enemy.  Thus,  in  12 14,  we 
find  Innocent  HI.  forbidding  any  bishop  or  cleric, 
without  a  special  mandate  from  the  Holy  See,  to 
censure  King  John  of  England,  as  he  had  become  a 
vassal  of  the  pope.' 

Side  by  side  with  the  Papacy  stood  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  The  emperor  was  the  champion 
of  the  Church,  pledged  to  her  defense  against  all 
secular  enemies.  According  to  Frederick  I.,  "  Di- 
vine Providence  had  especially  appointed  the 
Roman    Empire    to    prevent    the    continuance    of 

*  "  Migne,"  ccxvii.,  p.  226.     Supplem.  ep.  185. 


CHURCH  AND   STATE.  263 

schism  in  the  Church.'"  The  empire  was  the 
creation  of  the  pope;  it  was  not  hereditary.  The 
first  emperor  was  Charlemagne,  crowned  such  at 
the  Christmas  of  the  year  800,  by  Leo  III.  It  was 
Leo's  own  work,  done  for  the  peace  and  protection 
of  the  Church.  The  ofRce  was,  like  that*  of  the 
Papacy  itself,  non-hereditary. 

"  Each  of  these  lofty  offices,"  says  Freeman, 
"  is  open  to  every  baptized  man ;  each  alike  is 
purely  elective  ;  each  may  be  the  reward  of  merit 
in  any  rank  of  life  or  in  any  corner  of  Christ- 
endom. While  smaller  offices  were  closely  con- 
fined by  local  or  aristocratic  restrictions,  the 
throne  of  Augustus  and  the  chair  of  Peter  were, 
in  theory  at  least,  open  to  the  ambition  of  every  man 
of  orthodox  belief.  Even  in  the  darkest  times  of 
aristocratic  exclusiveness,  no  one  dared  to  lay  down 
as  a  principle  that  the  Roman  Emperor,  any  more 
than  the  Roman  Bishop,  need  be  of  princely  or 
Roman  ancestry.  Freedom  of  birth  —  Roman  citi- 
zenship, in  short,  to  clothe  mediaeval  ideas  in 
classical  words  —  was  all  that  was  needed."* 

And  so  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  now  a  shadow, 
now  a  power,  continued  to  exist  by  the  grace 
of  the  Holy  See,  sometimes  to  aid,  more  fre- 
quently to  hinder,  the  Church  in  the  exercise  of  her 
functions  and  prerogatives.  With  the  hereditary 
title  came  an  hereditary  tendency  of  reversion  to 
the  absolutism  of  the  Caesars.  Ecclesiastical  privi- 
leges, at  first  granted  the  emperors  by  the  popes, 
their  successors  in  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  sought 


*  Letter  to  the  Prelate*  of  Germanj. 
»  •'  Historical  Eways,"  vi.,  p.  136. 


264  BSSArs  miscellaneous, 

to  convert  into  rights  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Papacy.  The  quarrel  may  read  to  us  like  a  story  of 
petty  spites  and  personal  squabbles,  but  its  mean, 
ing  is  deeper.  The  very  existence  of  the  Church 
was  involved.  When  bishoprics  were  put  up  for 
sale  ta  the  highest  bidder,  or  were  kept  vacant  for 
years  that  their  revenues  might  flow  into  the  royal 
or  imperial  coffers,  it  becomes  evident  that  religion, 
and  spiritual  life,  and  morality  must  suffer  and  the 
whole  mission  of  the  Church  be  frustrated.  Upon 
more  than  one  pope  must  we  accept  the  verdict  of 
Neander    concerning  the  indomitable  Hildebrand : 

"  Gregory  VII.  was  animated  by  something  higher 
than  by  self-seeking  and  selfish  ambition  ;  it  was  an 
idea  which  swayed  him  and  to  which  he  sacrificed 
all  other  interests.  It  was  the  idea  of  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Church,  and  of  a  tribunal  to  exercise 
judgment  over  all  other  human  relations ;  the  idea 
of  a  religious  and  ethical  sovereignty  over  the  world, 
to  be  exercised  by  the  Papacy."  ' 

Those  were  stormy  times,  and  it  took  a  strong 
hand  to  curb  the  headlong  career  of  the  power- 
ful when  they  would  ride  roughshod  over  the 
most  sacred  rights.  When  Philip  Augustus  of 
France  violated  the  sanctity  and  indissolubility  of 
the  marriage-bond,  it  was  the  popes  who  brought 
him  to  a  sense  of  his  duty,  and  compelled 
him  to  undo  the  great  wrong  he  had  done  his 
injured  wife,  the  beautiful  and  virtuous  Ingeburge. 
Instances  might  be  multiplied,  in  which  the  popes 
shall  be  found  struggling  against  might  and  prestige 
in  the  cause  of  the  honor  and  dignity  of  womanhood. 

^  "  Church  History,"  ii.,  p.  375.    Third  edition. 


CHURCH  AND   STATE.  285 

"  Go  through  the  long  annals  of  Church  history," 
says  Cardinal  Newman,  "century  after  century,  and 
say,  was  there  ever  a  time  when  her  bishops,  and 
notably  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  were  slow  to  give 
their  testimony  in  behalf  of  the  moral  and  revealed 
law  and  to  suffer  for  their  obedience  to  it,  or 
forget  that  they  had  a  message  to  deliver  to  the 
world?  Not  the  task  merely  of  administering  spirit- 
ual consolation,  or  of  making  the  sick-bed  easy,  or  of 
training  up  good  members  of  society,  and  of  'serving 
tables'  (though  all  this  was  included  in  their  range 
of  duty) ;  but  specially  and  directly  to  deliver  a 
message  to  the  world,  a  definite  message  to  high  and 
low,  from  the  world  *s  Maker,  whether  men  would 
hear  or  whether  they  would  forbear.  The  history, 
surely,  of  the  Church,  in  all  past  times,  ancient  as 
well  as  mediaeval,  is  the  very  embodiment  of  that 
tradition  of  apostolical  independence  and  freedom 
of  speech,  which  in  the  eyes  of  man  is  her  great 
offense  now." ' 

Great  is  the  debt  the  nations  owe  the  Church  for 
having  preserved  throughout  the  ages  this  indepen- 
dence of  speech.  Despotism  and  tyranny  would 
have  had  little  respect  for  any  or  every  element  that 
enters  into  our  modern  civilization,  if  there  were  no 
authority  to  call  a  halt  and  say  in  tones  that  were 
unmistakable  and  that  commanded  respect :  "  Thus  far 
shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther!"  This  was  the 
temporal  mission  of  the  Papacy.  How  staunchly 
and  how  efficiently  she  fulfilled  her  mission  has  been 
recognized  by  all  competent  historians.  Few  there 
are  who  are  not  willing  to  subscribe  to  the  verdict  of 
Ancillon : 


*  Letters  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  p.  34. 


266  BSSArs  miscellaneous. 

"  In  the  Middle  Ages,  when  there  was  no  so- 
cial order,  the  Papacy,  and  perhaps  the  Papacy  alone 
saved  Europe  from  a  state  of  absolute  barbarism.  It 
created  relations  amongst  nations  far  removed  from 
each  other,  was  a  common  centre  for  all,  a  point  of 
union  for  states  otherwise  isolated.  It  was  a  supreme 
court  of  justice  raised  in  the  midst  of  universal  anarchy. 
Its  judgments  were  from  time  to  time  received  with 
the  respect  they  merited.  It  fenced  in  and  restrained 
the  despotism  of  emperors.  It  compensated  for 
the  want  of  a  due  balance  of  power  and  lessened 
the  injurious  effects  of  feudal  governments."  ' 

Let  us  add  that  the  Papacy  was  more  than  a  merely 
compensating  principle.  Based  upon  the  supremacy 
of  the  spiritual  over  the  material,  recognized  and  acted 
upon  by  Christian  nations  possessing  the  same  faith, 
it  was  a  most  secure,  a  most  economic  and  a  most 
impartial  tribunal  of  arbitration.  Has  modern  politi- 
cal science  been  able  to  furnish  a  better  substitute  ? 

When  kings  ceased  to  look  to  the  Papacy  for 
recognition  and  sanction,  and  no  longer  feared  inter- 
dict or  excommunication,  they  sought  shelter  in  the 
Divine  right  of  royalty  to  do  all  things.  They 
refused  to  hold  themselves  amenable  to  any  tribunal. 

"  It  is  notorious,"  says  the  late  Henry  Sumner 
Maine,  "  that  as  soon  as  the  decay  of  the  feudal 
system  had  thrown  the  medfaeval  constitutions  out 
of  working  order,  and  when  the  Reformation  had 
discredited  the  authority  of  the  pope,  the  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  right  of  kings  rose  immediately  into 
an  importance  which  had  never  before  attended  it." ' 

*  "  Tableau    des    Revolutions    du    Syst^me    Politique  de 
1'  Europe,"  Introduction,  p.  133. 
'  "  Ancient  Law,"  p.  334. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  267 

We  all  know  how  that  doctrine  brought  a  Charies 
I.  to  the  block.  Where  else  is  despotism  likely  to 
lead?  The  Kings  of  France  complained  of  papal 
interference ;  they  found  theologians  to  exaggerate 
the  papal  pretensions ;  they  sighed  for  the  freedom 
of  the  Caliph.  Well,  they  reduced  that  interference  to  a 
minimum  ;  they  endeavored  to  make  every  bishop  a 
pope  in  his  own  diocese ;  they  placed  their  tools  in 
the  diocesan  seats.  The  theory  of  a  national  Church 
became  popular ;  Gallicanism  reigned ;  Rome  received 
but  scant  respect,  and  what  was  the  result?  The 
people,  exasperated  against  the  oppressions  of  a 
century,  rose  in  defense  of  rights  and  liberties  which 
they  were  denied,  and  in  the  reeking  horrors  of  the 
Revolution  became  intoxicated  with  the  blood  of 
king  and  priest.  Were  there  no  Gallican  Church 
identified  with  along  record  of  tyrannies  and  oppres- 
sions, had  Rome  been  free  to  elect  its  own  bishops, 
its  clergy  would  have  been  wholly  identified  with 
the  people ;  their  power  and  influence  would  have 
guided  the  storm,  and  instead  of  the  guillotine  and 
the  orgies  with  which  every  student  of  history  is 
familiar,  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  the  difficulties 
between  king  and  people  might  have  been  made. 
This  is  all  the  more  evident  when  we  remember  that 
the  principle  of  the  Revolution  is  the  great  under- 
lying idea  of  modern  times.  All  modern  thought,  all 
great  political  movements,  all  great  social  reforms, 
are  based  upon  the  sublime  principle  of  Liberty, 
Equality  and  Fraternity  rightly  understood.  Now, 
this  principle  has  in  it  nothing  to  alarm.  All  the 
nations  of  the  earth  are  marching  toward  its  realiza- 


268  ESSArs  miscellaneous. 

tion.  In  some,  the  awakening  is  earlier  than  in  others. 
This  was  the  underlying  idea  of  the  old  Republic  of 
Florence,  "which  would  have  no  king  because  its 
king  was  Jesus  Christ ; "  *  it  was  the  underlying  idea 
that  led  to  the  Constitution  of  1688  in  England ; 
it  nerved  the  cantons  of  Switzerland  to  struggle 
against  Austrian  domination  till  they  were  free  as 
the  chamois  ranging  their  beloved  Alps ;  it  gave 
birth  to  our  own  republic.  Its  spirit  is  in  the  air 
and  will  not  down.  Statesmen  and  governments 
may  slight  or  ignore  or  even  resist  it,  but  such  a 
course  is  one  of  folly.  They  who  will  not  recognize 
it  and  give  it  direction  and  prepare  men  for  its 
coming,  will  be  borne  down  by  its  fierce  impetus. 

Again,  since  the  treaty  of  Westphalia,  Europe 
has  been  adjusted  by  what  is  known  as  balance  of 
power.  According  to  this  principle,  no  one  nation 
will  be  allowed  to  assume  control  beyond  a  certain 
limit.  She  may  absorb  a  certain  number  of  districts 
or  provinces  belonging  to  a  weaker  power,  but,  in 
order  to  preserve  an  equilibrium,  she  must  not 
destroy  that  power.  Or,  a  weaker  power  is  a  source 
of  trouble  to  more  powerful  nations  in  her  neighbor- 
hood. As  a  solution  to  the  difficulty,  why  may  they 
not  carve  the  weaker  nation  up  and  distribute  a 
share  to  each,  still  preserving,  even  as  happened  to 
Poland,  the  equilibrium  ?  These  are  events  that 
could  not  have  occurred  under  the  arbitration  of  the 
popes.  A  merely  mechanical  principle,  with  no 
other  basis  than  expedience,  no  other  motive  than 

1  Cardinal  Capecelatra:  "Life  of  St.  Philip  Neri,"  vol.  I, 
p.  34- 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  269 

policy,  such  as  is  this  principle  of  balance  of  power, 
must  needs  be  immoral  in  its  very  nature  and  lead 
to  acts  of  gross  injustice.  It  is  bearing  its  fruits 
to-day  in  Europe.  Look  at  the  attitude  of  all  the 
great  powers  on  the  Continent !  Each  is  in  arms, 
grimly  awaiting  war.  The  strong  and  the  young 
are  idly  consuming  the  products  of  the  soil,  and  these 
nations  are  becoming  impoverished.  All  human 
ingenuity  is  concentrated  upon  the  discovery  of  the 
most  rapid  and  most  effectual  methods  of  destroying 
human  life.  This  state  of  affairs  is  radically  wrong. 
Who  would  not  rejoice  to  see  every  nation  of  Europe 
disarm,  go  back  to  the  arts  of  peace,  and  leave  the 
arbitration  of  all  international  difficulties  to  the  pope  ? 
The  Holy  Roman  Empire  has  passed  into  shadow- 
land.  The  doctrine  of  the  absolute  right  of  kings  to 
perpetrate  all  acts  in  God's  name,  and  under  the 
Divine  sanction,  is  no  more.  Even  where  crowned 
heads  still  exist  in  Europe,  not  they,  but  their  peo- 
ples—  Russia  being  excepted  —  rule.  The  world's 
future  is  altogether  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  The 
relations  of  the  Church  and  state  in  the  new  order 
of  things  may  easily  prove  far  more  satisfactory 
than  in  the  old  order.  In  our  own  American 
republic  these  relations  are  almost  ideal.  We  know 
that  purely  ideal  relations  between  Church  and 
state  obtain  only  where  religion  is  one  in  society. 
Then  might  the  secular  power  be  subject  to  the 
spiritual  power,  as  the  body  is  subject  to  the  soul 
then  might  the  state  cooperate  with  the  Church, 
aiding  her  when  necessary,  in  her  work  of  establish- 
ing the  kingdom  of  God  in  souls,  knowing  that  all 


270  £SSArS   MISCELLANEOUS. 

else,  bearing  upon  temporal  happiness,  will  surely 
follow.  Here,  where  the  forms  of  Christian  belief 
are  many,  this  order  of  things  is  impossible.  But 
the  order  of  things  guaranteed  us  by  our  Constitu- 
tion  and  our  laws  is  admirable. 

The  noble  patriots  who  framed  our  Constitution 
and  laid  so  firmly  the  foundations  of  our  republic, 
built  upon  the  rights  and  liberties  inherent  in  man. 
Now  these  rights  and  liberties  with  their  accom- 
panying duties  and  responsibilities,  as  between  man 
and  man,  are  not  of  the  state.  They  are  above  and 
beyond  the  state.  They  are  the  vital  principle  that 
gives  being  to  the  state.  They  are  the  natural  law, 
which  is  a  participation  in  the  eternal  law  of  God. 
The  state  is  simply  the  mouthpiece  to  proclaim  this 
law,  and  the  instrument  to  enforce  it.  The  princi- 
ples of  right  and  wrong  existed  before  they  were 
made  to  enter  into  statutory  decrees,  just  as  the 
Decalogue  was  engraved  on  the  hearts  of  men 
before  Moses  inscribed  it  on  tablets  of  stone. 
Those  principles  are  eternal,  and  it  is  our  pride 
and  our  glory  and  the  secret  of  our  prosperity 
as  a  people  that  the  great  charter  of  our  liberties  is 
based  upon  them.  In  consequence  the  state  admits 
the  right  of  every  man  to  worship  God  according  to 
the  dictates  of  his  conscience.'  Every  man  has  his 
rights  of  conscience,  not  as  privileges  conceded  by 
the  state,  but  as  rights  existing  among  his  other 
natural  rights,  recognized  and  acknowledged  by  the 
state,  as  held  under  a  higher  law  than  its  own. 
Church  and  state  do  not  here  exist  upon  a  system  of 
mutual  concessions  or  privileges.     There  is  here  no 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  271 

absorption  of  one  into  the  other.  They  are  distinct, 
but  they  are  not  separated.  On  the  contrary,  their 
union     is    most    intimate    and    most    harmonious. 

"There  is  nothing,"  says Brownson,  "which  Gre- 
gory VII.,  Innocent  III.,  Boniface  VIII.  and  other 
great  popes  struggled  for  against  the  German  em- 
perors, the  kings  of  France,  Aragon  and  England,  and 
the  Italian  republics  that  is  not  recognized  here  by  our 
republic  to  be  the  right  of  the  spiritual  order.  Here 
the  old  antagonism  between  Church  and  state  does 
not  exist.  There  is  here  a  certain  antagonism,  no 
doubt,  between  the  Church  and  the  sects,  but  none 
between  the  Church  and  the  state  or  civil  society. 
Here  the  Church  has,  so  far  as  civil  society  is  con- 
cerned, all  that  she  has  ever  claimed,  all  that  she  has 
ever  struggled  for.  Here  she  is  perfectly  free.  She 
summons  her  prelates  to  meet  in  council  when  she 
pleases,  and  promulgates  her  decrees  for  the  spiritual 
government  of  her  children  without  leave  asked 
or  obtained.  The  placet  of  the  civil  power  is  not 
needed,  is  neither  solicited  nor  accepted.  She 
erects  and  fills  sees  as  she  judges  proper,  founds  and 
conducts  schools,  colleges  and  seminaries  in  her  own 
way,  without  let  or  hindrance ;  she  manages  her  own 
temporalities,  not  by  virtue  of  a  grant  or  concession 
of  the  state,  but  as  her  acknowledged  right,  held  as 
the  right  of  conscience,  independently  of  the  state.*" 

Where  society  is  split  up  into  a  diversity  of 
creeds  there  is  supreme  wisdom  in  the  attitude  of 
the  state  towards  all,  granting  freedom  of  conscience 
so  long  as  conscience  dictates  nothing  contrary  to 
the  principles  of  natural  right,  or  calculated  to  out- 
rage the  moral  sense  of  society.  We  ask  no  closer 
relations  of  Church  and  state.  So  far  as  our  re- 
ligion is  concerned,  our  sole  cry  is :    "  Hands  off." 

1  •'  Works,"  vol.  XIII.,  p.  143. 


272  JSSSArS  MISCELLANEOUS. 

The  state  is  incompetent  to  pronounce  upon  religious 
matters ;  it  has  no  mission  to  determine  the  validity 
of  a  religious  creed.  To  discriminate  in  favor  of 
anyone  to  the  exclusion  of  all  the  others,  were  an 
act  of  injustice  to  every  citizen  not  holding  the 
favored  creed.  It  were  un-American  because  it 
were  unconstitutional.  It  is  a  primary  duty  of  the 
state  to  aid  and  protect  its  citizens  in  the  fulfillment  of 
their  respective  duties,  to  secure  to  them  their  inal- 
ienable rights,  to  see  that  justice  is  done  between 
man  and  man ;  above  all  is  it  a  duty  of  the  state  to 
safeguard  the  weak  minorities  in  their  rights  and 
immunities  against  the  more  powerful  majorities. 

In  every  man  and  woman  there  is  an  inseparable 
union  of  Church  and  state.  Each  holds  certain  re- 
ligious tenets  ;  many  belong  to  some  visible  form  of 
Christianity  ;  but  in  proportion  as  all  live  up  to  their 
religious  convictions,  in  that  proportion  are  they 
good  citizens,  faithful  in  the  performance  of  their 
civic  duties  —  honest  and  honorable  and  just  in  all 
relations  of  life.  Christian  virtue  in  Christian  society 
has  never  dimmed  the  civic  virtues.  Tell  me, 
would  the  New  England  Puritans  —  the  revered  an- 
cestors of  many  whom  we  now  address —  have  left  so 
lasting  an  impression  upon  this  republic  if  they  had 
been  less  intensely  religious?  '  The  fierceness  and 
asperity  and  intolerance  that  entered  into  their  re- 
ligious convictions  and  dictated  the  Colonial  Blue 
Laws,  also  shaped  the  rigid  honesty  and  integrity  of 
character  that  would  die  rather  than  deviate  a  hair's 
breadth  from  the  path  of  rectitude.  When  that 
noble  son  of  Connecticut,  Nathan  Hale,  was  about 


CHURCH  AND  STATE.  273 

to  be  hanged  as  a  spy,  his  sole  regret  was  that  he 
had  not  other  lives  to  give  for  his  country.  Think 
you  he  was  any  the  less  sturdy  a  patriot  because  he 
had  been  strictly  and  religiously  brought  up  in  the 
stern  tenets  of  his  Puritan  father?  Can  you  im- 
agine Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  throwing  his 
broad  acres  and  his  spotless  name  into  the  country's 
cause,  any  the  less  a  patriot  because  he  had  been 
carefully  trained  by  the  Jesuits?  Did  he  find  any 
difficulty  in  reconciling  his  allegiance  to  Rome  with 
his  allegiance  to  the  newborn  republic?  Was  his 
cousin  John  Carroll,  the  first  Catholic  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  less  a  patriot,  when  he  accompanied 
the  commission  who  sought  the  alliance  of  Canada 
in  the  cause  of  independence,  than  John  Jay,  when, 
by  his  fanatical  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
he  rendered  that  alliance  an  impossibility  ?'  This  is 
a  subject  over  which  men  have  needlessly  waxed 
wroth.  Let  us  raise  ourselves  above  prejudice  and 
look  facts  full  in  the  face,  and  we  will  find  perfect 
reconciliation  between  Church  and  state.  Is  not 
every  full  and  perfect  life  an  harmonious  blending 
of  these  two  orders  of  duties?  In  this  fact  is  the 
solution  to  the  whole  problem  of  Church  and  state. 
The  name  of  God  may  not  be  in  our  Constitution, 
but  his  hand  is  discernible  in  every  line  of  it.  With 
far-seeing  wisdom  was  that  first  amendment  inserted : 
Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  establish- 
ment of  religion  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise 
thereof. 

^  See  a  valuable  article  hy  John  Gilmary  Shea,  in  the  U.  S. 
Catholic  Historical  Magazine,  vol.  III.,  No.  X.,  "  Why  Canada 
Is  Not  a  Part  of  the  United  States." 

E.  M.— 18 


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